Vampire Chronicles of Hotel Transylvania Chapter One
by Gotham317
Summary: A beautiful young woman named Elisa accompanies a teenage traveler into a haunted forest to keep an eye on him, only to get more than they bargained for when they discover a secret hotel for monsters, including Count Dracula and his teenage daughter, and this mysterious vampire has a connection to Elisa's past. Alternate Universe of HT universe.
1. Prologue

**_Hello, readers. I apologize for deleting the old Vampire Chronicles and other Hotel Transylvania stories on fanfiction. After going through a writer's block and heaving learned of the upcoming Hotel Transylvania 3 movie and sparking ideas of OCs for the movie, I intend to make changes to Vampire Chronicles so I am publishing my newer version. I saved the rest of the old versions so I can remember how it is written and rewrite them. Characters from the TV series will be featured in my story as if they were a part of the HT movie franchise. I'm still working on my Great Mouse Detective story and it's nearly finished, but I'll do one story at a time. PS, I based Elisa's character backstory from Tim Burton's Dark Shadows and ParaNorman._**

 ** _I do not own Hotel Transylvania or Sony Pictures Animation, nor do I own Hotel Transylvania the Series or Nelvana. OCs are mine. Vampire Chronicles' version of Hotel Transylvania 2 will be published when I'm finished with the first one._**

 ** _Again, I apologize for deleting the old HT stories, but do not worry they will come back when I finish rewriting them._**

 ** _Thank you._**

* * *

 **1895**

A thick mist gradually parts to reveal a haunted forest where deep in the forest stood a lonely old mansion, hidden off in the middle of the forest. The fog and the spooky sounds of hooting or howling in the forest surrounding the isolated mansion created an eerie feeling to the atmosphere, like that of an old horror movie. This is Transylvania, an infamous gothic region known only something one could read about in horror stories or watch in horror movies.

At that moment, a little black bat flew up to the mansion balcony. Once it landed in front of a double glass doorway a bluish violet smoke morphed its form into a humanoid shape. The dark silhouette of a man, wearing a cape with a neck collar that reached the back of his head. The doors swung open as the figure practically glided into the room, his attention was drawn to a baby's crib.

The dark shadow loomed over the crib, his mouth open to reveal the silhouettes of two sharp fangs. Vampire fangs. The vampire appeared to be reaching his hands out to the crib and its unsuspecting occupant who lay asleep in the crib, as if ready to bite and suck the baby's blood when...

"Peek-A-Boo!" The vampire immediately moved out of the shadows to reveal himself as Count Dracula, who cooed in a playful tone to the baby in the crib.

The baby happened to be the vampire's child, she was a beautiful baby girl with black hair and sapphire blue eyes. Frightened by her father's sudden peekaboo, the baby's bottom lip trembled and she started to cry hysterically.

"No, no, no. I didn't mean to startle you, my little baby." Dracula reached down to pick her up, holding his baby daughter close as he calmed her down. "Shh, shh." Then he began to sing her a lullaby while gently rocking her back and forth. "Hush little vampire, don't say a word. Papa's gonna bite the head off a bird." As he sung, the little baby started giggling and moving around in his arms.

Carrying her over to the changing table, Dracula playfully tickled the baby's stomach as he teased her, "I vant to kiss your tush!" He cooed as he kissed her tummy. "I vant to kiss your tush!"

Dracula laid her down on the table and, using his powers, removed the dirty diaper and changed her diaper to a cleaner diaper. The baby cooed and giggled. Then Dracula dumped the dirty diaper in a coffin-shaped bin beside the table.

A few years passed quickly within the mansion.

Dracula is most often working with a troll construction worker in his office, both of them looking over the blueprints of a castle. "Nice, but maybe a little square footed," he commented while holding a chalice of blood substitute in his hand. "I want a lot of monsters here."

As the troll erased a few lines, a drop of drool landed on the page, getting their attention. The two of them looked up to see Dracula's toddler daughter giggling and crawling down on the ceiling to the wall until she reached Dracula's level as he smiled affectionately at her.

The next time we see them is when the little vampire girl is around four or five years old, having earned her fangs, riding a play zombie horse through the mansion, giggling excitedly as her father playfully chased after her.

"I'm going to get you, little Mavis. I'm going to get you!" Rounding the corner, Dracula paused for a moment to lean against the wall and take a break from his sore back.

His little girl, named Mavis, let go of her horse when her curious eyes caught the open door. "What out there?" she pointed before going over to the door, hoping to go outside and explore.

But Dracula paled as he immediately rushed over to scoop up his daughter away from the open door, nearly spooked at the very thought of his child leaving the sanctity of the house. "Oh, we never go out there...EVER." He replied, before harshly slamming the door closed as little Mavis peered over his shoulder.

To show her what the outside world was really like, Dracula read Mavis a book about terrifying tales of humans as she curled up under her bed's blanket while he read to her.

"And then the monsters ran away and were forced into hiding," he looked down at his little girl seeing that his book was helping to dissuade his daughter's wanderlust, "but Harry the human found them and jumped out from under their beds!"

"I'm scared!" cried Mavis.

"And burned their clothes!" Mavis ducked under the covers and crawled to the side of the coffin bed as Dracula continued, "and beat their toes!" He grabbed her toes and pinched them gently as she squirmed. "And took their candy!"

Dracula pulled the covers away, only to find Mavis was not there. She was hiding under a nearby table. Peering underneath the table, Dracula found little Mavis huddled up and clutching a red skeleton head lollipop.

"Don't take my candy!" Mavis whined.

Dracula smiled as he assured her gently, "Baby Claws, you don't need to be frightened. I promised your mommy I would protect you forever."

Feeling better, Mavis crawled out from under the desk at the sound of a ukulele being played. She looked up to see her father sitting on the table and playing his ukulele for her. Mavis smiled, watching her father sing to her in order to dissolve her fears.

"My beautiful Mavy, let me wipe all your poop away. Those humans are nasty," he magically possessed his ukulele allowing his free hands to scoop up Mavis, "so with Daddy you will stay." He took back his ukulele to continue playing it on her own. "And if a human tries to harm you, I'll simply say..."

The vampire father suddenly turned dark when his blue eyes became black slits and turn red as he roared and snarled like a demon animal, "RAAAAAARRRRWWWWW!"

He returned to normal and smiled to an unfazed Mavis, as he finished his song, "Because you're Daddy's Girl." Little Mavis smiled up at her father, showing off a pair of tiny fangs. "Daddy's Girl, I'm you're Vladdy Daddy and you're my ghoul..."

Flight training day was special to the Count. His little Mavis was ready to learn how to change into a bat and fly. Mavis wore a pink bicycle helmet on her head to keep her head safe in case she hurt herself.

"Just bend the legs and push off," Dracula instructed, backing away and kneeling away from her as she crouched on the end of her bed. "Trust me, mouse."

Mavis dove off the bed and, before it seemed like she might hurt herself, she transformed into a little bat with blue eyes, flapping her little wings crazily as she fluttered around the room. "I can fly, I can fly!"

"Look at you! Faster baby, faster! You got it, my little voodoo doll!" Dracula proudly jumped up and down in his spot before transforming into a bat with red eyes and began flying around the chandelier with her, both of them laughing.

At that moment, the troll worker entered the room. "Excuse me, sir."

Dracula paused in the air and frowned down at the troll, slightly miffed at being interrupted. "What?! WHAT?!"

Little Mavis flew into a wall with a bump. "Ow!" This caught Dracula's attention, but she shook it off as she reassured her father. "I'm okay."

"It's ready!" The troll announced.

Dracula followed the troll worker out onto the balcony and stared off into the distance, looking to see the finished labor of the troll builder's work, then he said, "Looks good. Only monsters can get in?"

"Oh, absolutely," replied the builder. "It's hidden real nicely. You've got 400 acres of haunted forest in front of you, you've got the land of the undead on the perimeters, and any humans daring to even look over there will away real quick."

Fifty miles away, in Dracula's vision, stood the most massive and largest castle in the smog. A driveway was built in there, along with a stone bridge in the front. The zombie construction workers stopped working when a female zombie walked past them. One she had left them, the zombies acted all goofy, making themselves look good or moaning out for the lady zombie's attention.

Dracula frowned at the zombies' lack of concentration until the builder continued, "But, of course, be smart. No bonfires. No firework shows."

"Yeah, yeah, no fire," Dracula brushed him off. "I get it."

Sadly, Dracula turned back to look towards a picture of his happy family. In the picture stood the Count himself, Mavis as an infant, and a beautiful gothic lady standing lovingly beside him holding Mavis in her arms. She was Dracula's wife, Martha. He gently grasped the picture in his hand and stroked the woman's face tenderly.

"It's time, my darling Martha," he whispered to her, almost sad and happy about it." The place we always talked about for Mavis - No one will ever harm her here."

Just as the sun had come up, Count Dracula took Mavis by the hand as he lead her into their new home; **Hotel Transylvania.**


	2. Present Day

**Present Day**

113 years had passed since the secret hotel for monsters had first opened. As dawn steadily rose over the charming modern village of Sighisoara Transylvania, the old Gothic church clock tower tolled the early hours of morning as it echoed throughout the town. It was heard loud and clear at the nearby Bats in the Belfry Inn & Tavern where a beautiful young woman stirred slightly from a peaceful sleep, which became agitated by the loud knocking at her bedroom door.

"Elisa, time to get up! We have early costumers coming in!" Another woman's muffled voice yelled from behind the door.

The young woman, called Elisa, groaned in such a grumpy tone, rubbing the sleep out of her emerald green eyes as she threw the blanket off and sat up to yell, "I'll be right down, Cat!"

While Elisa loved her boss and his family, she wished there were times it was slow at the tavern so she could sleep in more, and not just on her days off. She went to the nearby bathroom to freshen up really quick. Elisa washed her face up, brushed her long light chocolate brown hair, then put on a dull blue working dress and white apron, and then made her way to the kitchen for a quick breakfast of jammed toast and eggs and some coffee, left for her by her boss's wife.

Feeling a little better after having something to eat, Elisa made her way downstairs to the bar to begin the day's work shift. Her boss was busily sweeping in a corner, his son a blonde haired man named Simon worked at the bar by cleaning off stains and served morning drinks to some patrons, a few other people worked in the kitchen with her boss's wife, Catarina, preparing cooked meals and this morning's specials with help from other chefs, and her daughter a dark haired lady named Helena was busy taking orders for paying customers. Catarina wore old, dull colored, worn out clothing and her blonde hair was covered by a dull beige scarf. Elisa knew Simon and Helena owned their own living quarters upstairs, so she was glad she was not alone.

The bar had the appearance of old world construction with all the polished wood and stonework mixed with later modern amenities. The whole place lit with oil lanterns, but with led lights, to give it a warm and welcoming feel like a pub from the 19th century with carved wooden tables and chairs with brass and amber glass candles holders for a romantic feel. Behind the old bar, a moderate selection of ales, beers, and other drinks were kept stocked and where the bartender worked the 21st century touch pad computer and cash register, and in a far corner a warm fire blazed with a few plush chairs and a coffee table between them. Plenty of garlic strings hung around the room due to the family's belief of supernatural creatures, mostly vampires.

While Elisa continued to gaze at the room as if her mind lost in time, her boss Nicholas, had seen her arrival. He was a heavy set man with black hair and a receding hairline and thick beard peppered with gray, and he wore old and worn out dark clothes. "Cutting it close again, aren't we? That's what happens when you sleep in late on a busy day!" He firmly scolded her. "There was an accident at table three. Get it cleaned up and take that man's order!"

"Yes, sir." Signing, Elisa took an extra broom, cleaned up some broken glass and spilled coffee, and replaced it with some fresh coffee, then went to take other morning orders as more patrons arrived, plenty of whom she recognized as regulars. "And so begins another typical boring day in the boring world that is my life," Elisa mumbled moodily to herself.

"Hey Ellie, guess what?" Simon was polishing a glass cup behind the counter before filling it up with beer. "There's been another one of those sightings yesterday. This time, someone said he saw an undead zombie driving a hearse in and out of the forest."

"Really?" Elisa raised an eyebrow. "That's strange."

"That's what I said." Simon handed the beer cup to the customer. "The locals are convinced it's real, but perhaps its just some hoax."

"You could be right." Elisa swept the floor with a broom.

"People will do anything to attract tourists," Helena added, taking a customer's order. Then handed the order through the open window.

"Right, its not like any vampire or werewolf is going to boost tourism for..." Elisa began, until she was cut off.

"Backup!" Catarina shouted from the kitchen, leaving a plate filled with delicious breakfast food on the ledge, and Elisa took it so to deliver it to the hungry customer.

* * *

Five hours later, the morning rush had slowed down. By the time Elisa had taken the last order of the day, her shift was almost done. Thank goodness it was because she was close to exhaustion, wiping her forehead and sighed.

"Elisa!" Catarina's voice brought her back on her feet. "Could you run to the Butcher's shop, please? We're running low on meat. I'd do it myself, but I've got a lot of cleaning to do in the kitchen and my husband is bookkeeping for a few customers..."

"Yes! I'll do it." Elisa interrupted, eager to get out of the bar for a while.

"Good. Here is what we need." Catarina handed her the list of what they needed. "Be quick now."

Elisa took off her apron and put on a light blue bandana (as most women wear them in Transylvania) and walked out the door. As she made her way through the town square to the local butcher's shop, the townspeople often said 'good morning' to her as she passed by. She responded with a 'good morning' or a 'hello.' It truly was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

A little further down the block, she noticed a few people helping to place posters on the walls or pull up a huge banner for the village's annual festival tomorrow. Elisa knew it would be another busy day for the bar, that is if she had the time, but her boss agreed to let her have some time off to attend for a few short hours as long she never stayed out of his sight.

Just as she passed the village water fountain, a boney wrinkled hand suddenly grabbed her by the arm too tightly. Elisa gasped in fright. The person who had suddenly grabbed her was a well-known local gypsy woman who made a living of telling fortunes to both local townspeople and tourists alike. Although usually seen as strange and eccentric, she was usually benign and harmless due to her sage advice and friendly charismatic mannerisms. But in that moment, the gypsy woman looked to be in a trance and the look on her face scared Elisa so much she felt her blood turn cold.

"Your time draws near, my child...I can see it written all over your face..." the gypsy declared in a syrupy trance-induced voice, "The time you so hope for draws near, my dear. The one who will be your zing...a mysterious face from your past. But be warned, my child, the zing will come with many a price to pay. His face from your past is deeply wounded in his heart because of his own pain from his past. It is from his own pain another young soul is imprisoned, entangled in his lies and must be freed so as to find a zing of her own."

As the gypsy woman foretold of Elisa's possible fate, the young woman's face twisted of intrigue and fear, but she felt the gypsy's grip tighten on her arm like a snake and spoke, "Uhh...you're hurting my arm."

The gypsy snapped out of her trance and spoke with a more friendly and grandmotherly voice, "Oh! So sorry, dearie. Are you alright?"

Elisa looked even more confused. "Uh, you said something about me meeting my zing, and a face from my past. I didn't understand it."

"Is that all?" the gypsy woman shrugged as if nothing strange happened, "Well, happy to be of service, dear."

She held out her wrinkled hand to the young woman. Knowing what it meant, Elisa was hesitant. But she searched her pockets for money and gave what she hoped was a reasonable amount to the gypsy. Elisa was kind enough to even give her an apple she bought from the nearby market, knowing the gypsy woman had nothing to eat most of these days and always gave her food for her to eat.

The gypsy woman took a bite of the apple and nodded in deep gratitude. "Very generous of you, dearie."

Elisa politely said 'good-bye' to the gypsy woman and continued on her way to the butcher's shop.

* * *

A short while later, Elisa returned with the groceries, feeling like her fingers were going to fall off as she set them down on a nearby empty table.

Catarina looked everything over and was satisfied enough. "Thank you, sweetie."

"Happy to help," Elisa replied, taking off her bandanna.

"By the way, your shift is just about done like the others. You should take a break."

"Awesome! Thank you!" Elisa gave her a quick hug before she immediately raced upstairs to pack herself a lunch, then raced back downstairs to the exit before she was stopped in her tracks.

"Wait a second! Where are you going in such a rush?"

"Oh, well, I hope you don't mind but I would like to take my lunch break out in the park," Elisa explained with a shrug. "It's a nice day outside and..."

"All right," Catarina approved. "But don't be out too long."

Elisa left the bar immediately and headed for the park, where she sat down on a park bench to eat her lunch, her mind still occupied with what the gypsy fortune teller had prophesied to her.

"My zing will be a face from my past?" She thought to herself while biting into her sandwich. "What face do I know from my past whom could be my zing? And what's this many a price to pay?" She took a bite from her own apple. "If it means a zing then it would be worth more than anything in the world."

After finishing her lunch and her living quarters was near the edge of the town, Elisa decided to take a walk in the nearby forest, but she paused at the shadowed edge of the forest remembering vaguely yet fondly about the last time she ventured into the spooky forest. Of all the people in the village, she was the only one not afraid of the dark forest.

Just then, a bluish and pale spectral being appeared in the dark shadows of the forest. It was a ghost, taking the shape of a woman. There was no face, except she seemed to be beckoning Elisa to enter. Now Elisa was no stranger to ghosts, nor was she afraid. She had communicated with ghosts before throughout her entire life. She had conquered that fear long ago, realizing that ghosts are merely misunderstood and friendly, just like her.

"You?" Elisa gasped, recognizing the ghostly woman.

"HELP!"

Elisa gasped sharply this time, alarmed by the sudden cry.

"Somebody, help me!"

That cry told her of someone in trouble. And worst of all, the cries for help were coming from the forest she stood before her. The ghost beckoned her to come in, so it must be trying to gain her attention to find whoever is in trouble and rescue that person. Bravely, Elisa ventured deeper into the forest but found no sign of the person in trouble. But another cry of "HELP!" brought her attention to a nearby boulder and a vaguely familiar cliff.

Attached to the boulder was a thick climbing rope. After tightening both hands around the rope to stop it from rapidly going over the edge, but she got dragged a few feet closer to the ledge. She stared downward, momentarily paralyzed with fear, remembering having nearly fallen over it as a child and hearing the distant scream of her child self almost falling to her doom.

Elisa had snapped back to reality again as she suddenly heard her screaming become the screams of a young man yelling for help, and gathering whatever courage she had, Elisa pulled with all her might while yelling, "I've got you! Hold on!"

She pulled the rope with all her might and was finally able to tie it around the sturdy large boulder as she used it to gain more leverage and pull the climber back up to good old earth. A minute later, Elisa witnessed the climber make his way up while the two of them panted heavily from the rush.

Examining the climber, Elisa could see he was a young man, or still a teenager, in his early twenties, a head of wild moppy ginger-red hair, a fair complexion of a few freckles, wearing shorts with a yellow and green and orange long-sleeved shirt, and he carried a huge backpack on his back that left her staring at him in surprise.

"Whew! Thanks." The young man sighed in a relieved smile.

"You're welcome," Elisa replied in a friendly grin, but then she got serious, "But you shouldn't be out here alone, it's dangerous."

The young man shrugged like it didn't bother him. "I was mountain climbing with some dudes."

"Where are they?"

"They decided to quit. I guess they left me hanging."

"You mean they abandoned you just like that?!" She questioned while seething in anger. "I'm going to report them to the police for this!" Forgetting her manners, she politely introduced herself. "Oh! My name's Elisa Belmont, by the way."

"I'm Jonathan Loughran," the younger man introduced himself while they shook hands, "But everybody calls me Johnny."

After looking Johnny over to make sure he was okay, Elisa suddenly realized how late it was getting while she checked the time on her smartphone. "Oh, no. I should have been back at the bar an hour ago." She turned to Johnny. "I live and work at the Bats in the Belfry. After all this, perhaps I can get you something to eat."

"Okay." Johnny nodded.

Upon their return to the Bats in the Belfry, Elisa opened the entrance door for Johnny to enter the building, but she was unsurprised by her boss greeting her with a hard frown, sort of like how all fathers strictly confront their daughters upon returning home late.

"ELISA! Where have you been?!" Nicholas demanded. "You should have been back sooner!"

"I'm sorry, Nick," Elisa apologized. "I was taking a walk and..." she left out the part of meeting the ghost woman, aware that her boss would not believe her, "I lost track of time, but I found this poor kid dangling from that old cliff where... you know, and because his group left him there, I had to save him."

"I'm going to make a call to the police about this matter!" Catarina declared, looking just as angry as Elisa was when she learned how Johnny was left by the cliff.

"That what I said," replied Elisa.

Nicholas softened at her explanation, but he resumed his hard face while reprimanding her, "I'm glad you found him in time, but you should know better than to go back into the forest. The last time you wandered in there... Ugh, I don't know why you get so reckless these days."

"Will you stop chiding me like I'm a child?! You're not my father! I didn't do anything reckless! I was trying to save Johnny!" Elisa could have started an argument with her boss had his wife not intervened.

"Stop it, both of you! We have a guest! Uh, would you like something to eat, young man?" Catarina asked the young boy.

"Yeah, thanks." Johnny nodded, a little scared by the almost fight.

As he took a seat, Johnny looked around the bar, smiling in amazement at the old world construction. "Wow! Nice place you got here," he complimented.

"Thank you." Elisa sat beside him and took a sip of a cup of coffee. "So Johnny, what brings you to Transylvania? Are you on vacation, or are you here to attend the village festival?"

"No, I've been traveling around the world. I met so many awesome people around here," Johnny explained as he took a bite of his sandwich. "I just went on a tour of the Ruins of Lubov, before I got invited to go mountain climbing with those dudes I met on the tour. Do you know the legend of the Castle Lubov?"

Elisa nodded, releasing a longing and love-struck sigh. "My mother used to tell me that bedtime story when I was a little girl. It's the very definition of a zing."

"A zing?" Johnny asked, confused.

"It means finding your true love, and I've always hoped to find my zing someday."

"Cool!" Johnny grinned, before studying Elisa's facial features. "You know, when I saw an old picture of the Lady Lubov, I had no idea you looked just like her."

Elisa stared at him, confused by this young boy's words of her resemblance to the legendary Lady Lubov.

"You came from Castle Lubov, boy?" Nicholas, who had overheard them, immediately seated himself in front of Johnny. "You're foolish to think that's all there is to the legend, boy. That castle is cursed, and people are foolish to forget the legend says that fire was started by the Devil as the Lady Lubov and her Count of a husband were not whom they appeared to be."

"Darling, leave them be," Catarina appeared at his side, trying to calm Nicholas, who started to feign tears.

Simon, who took his break to eat a sandwich, sat in a nearby chair to overhear the story out of curiosity.

"And you're an even bigger fool for even daring to go into the Haunted Forest, for those that go in never come out," Nicholas continued. "There are things that live in those woods...strange creatures, they lurk in the shadows and hide from the human eye."

Nicholas feigned fear while finishing his story and began to shiver, mumbling incoherently. Catarina frowned sadly while she gently pat him on the back as he began sobbing in his hands. But Johnny kept watching them with a goofy smile, listening to the older man's story and ate his sandwich. He then took out his IPhone and took a picture of the older couple like a typical tourist.

Helena eyed her father with a disbelieving frown, scoffing as she drank her coffee and ate a sandwich, "You're such a baby, father." Nicholas whipped his head up and shot his daughter a hard look, as did Catarina. "Lady Lubov and the Count didn't really deserve to die in that fire, because I heard the fire was actually started by a maniac mob. My theory is that the villagers wrongly assumed they were of the supernatural, besides these suspicious beliefs made them into horrible people with no regard for innocent lives."

"She has a point," Simon added, agreeing with his sister on her theory. The older couple shot him frowns of annoyance, but he didn't care what they thought of him and finished his sandwich and coffee. "By the way, you left something burning in the kitchen." Simon thrust a thumb in the direction of the kitchen, where a cloud of gray smoke drifted out from the open kitchen window.

"Oh, no!" Catarina and Nicholas rushed back into the kitchen, while Elisa and the other two were glad to be rid of their presence and her boss's ridiculous story.

After Johnny finished his sandwich, he suddenly became deeply interested by the story of this spooky forest. "I'm going to check it out."

"What?" Elisa raised an eyebrow, catching the attention of Horatio and Helena.

"The spooky forest your boss told me about."

"Are you crazy?! You almost fell from a cliff!" Elisa gawked at him like he had lost his mind and Johnny's happy grin fell into a disappointed frown. However, her sense of adventure began to grow while remembering her previous adventures in the forest as a child, which resurfaced her curiosity. "But, I'll go with you to keep an eye on you if you don't mind." And that comment brought back Johnny's happy grin.

"You will do no such thing!" Nicholas interrupted, having overheard their conversation again. "You remember what happened the last time you wandered into the forest years ago?"

Elisa scowled, but she argued back, "I _never_ forgot it, but since Johnny almost fell from a cliff, I just want to make sure he stays out of trouble."

"It isn't just you getting lost or hurt that concerns me, Elisa," Nicholas softly reminded her. "You were being followed."

"Uh, I'm sorry to interrupt," Johnny spoke up. "But what are you talking about?"

"Long story short, it happened in my childhood," Elisa explained, "during a camping trip, I visited an old cemetery in the forest. When we found the cemetery, I thought I saw a... a strange man out there." She hesitated, not knowing whether Johnny would believe her story about _whom_ she encountered in the cemetery. "I was so scared I ran away, but I almost fell over a cliff... the same one you almost fell from. I was rescued by this man. He was all dressed in black and... he had blue eyes..."

"Was this guy a hermit?" Johnny questioned.

"No, he was too handsome to be a hermit," replied Elisa.

"Maybe your handsome hermit was a vampire," Helena teased playfully, earning her gentle shove from Elisa.

"What if this _man_ you claimed to have saved your life is..." Before Nicholas could continue, Elisa sharply cut him off.

"Oh please, Nick! It's not like he's a vampire or a ghost or whatever! Besides, it'll be getting dark when my shift is over. I am going with Johnny into the forest, whether you like it or not! I am a grown woman and I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself! I want to make sure Johnny doesn't get hurt, and I promise we won't be gone too long, we'll be back in a day or two!"

Both Nicholas and Catarina exchanged uncertain expressions, including Simon and Helena, but Johnny spoke up for her, "C'mon, think of it as a camping trip! I like to hit it alone, but I don't mind some company."

"ENOUGH! No more talk of camping!" Nicholas bellowed angrily. "Neither of you are not setting foot in that forest! EVER!" His booming voice frightened Johnny to shrink in the corner. The look of fear and hurt came over Elisa's face that her own boss didn't believe she can take care of herself. He stormed back into the kitchen and ordered her, "The kitchen needs mopping, Elisa. Don't make me tell you twice."

Instead of mopping the floor as she had been ordered to do, Elisa remained standing in the center of the room crestfallen. Glancing over at the young man, Elisa grumbled dramatically, "You'll have to excuse my boss. He's always been like this due to their suspicious stories of ghosts and goblins." She looked down at the floor, feeling determination to go into the forest no matter what. She thought quickly and found the best way to accomplish this is to sneak out of the Inn tonight. Very quietly and calmly, Elisa whispered to Johnny, "If you're still up for it, we can leave tonight when everyone is asleep."

His face brightening up, Johnny gestured zipping his lips and gave her a thumbs up.

That night when midnight neared and her boss and his family were fast asleep, Elisa had grabbed her packed backpack and tried to sneak out as quietly as she could down the stairs, even maneuvered her way around a loose squeaky step to meet Johnny outside of the building.

Johnny smiling, showing he was ready. She nodded back at him, and they ran as quick as a pair of rabbits to the edge of the forbidden dark forest, where an adventure awaited them just around the corner.


	3. Welcome to Hotel Transylvania

The darkness of the forest nightlife appeared to be lifeless and empty, the kind of forest anyone would expect when someone dares to venture into the Haunted Forest. That is until a black hearse sped through the black forest. The hearse was raven black colored with a golden vampire hood ornament on the front. While the hearse drove through the forest at crazy speed, strange monstrous shadows hopped, crawled, slithered, or ran after it. A secret passage way opened up underground, allowing the hearse to go down a darkened tunnel.

For about fifty seconds, the hearse reached the end of the tunnel and traveled down a stone bridge way, leading it up to its destination none other than Hotel Transylvania. Although instead of its quiet lifeless appearance during the day, at night it was alive with visitors and staff. Gargoyles were coming in by air. The hearse, used for a taxi, pulled up next to the driveway, and the chauffeur, the Headless Horseman using a Jack O' Lantern for a head, walked up to the passenger's door and opened it, allowing his passengers to exit the vehicle.

A huge tidal wave of werewolf puppies poured out. All of them were boys judging by their black skull-faced shirts, except there was only one girl with a pink skull-faced shirt. Wanda, the mother of the humongous litter, pulled herself out of the driver's seat with a grunt, due to being pregnant with another litter.

Wayne the Werewolf, the father of the pups and Wanda's husband, was looking pretty worn out while he paid the pumpkin-headed cabby driver. "Yeah, it's a mess back there," he mumbled, but the driver smiled and tipped his hat in response.

Slumping zombie bellhops surrounded the hearse. Once they made it, the zombies moaned while smashing holes through the glass windows so they could reach in and pull out the wolf family's luggage. Finished, they slunked up the stairs to the entrance.

Passing through the entrance of a revolving door, the lobby was full of visitors and customers. Monsters of all shapes and sizes and species were conversing with one another, sitting down to read a newspaper, or getting a room. There were gill-men, goblins, trolls, witch-faced hag-like women, Cyclops, gremlin people, the humanoid fly, living skeletons, sasquatches, Jekyll and Hyde creature, Bigfoot, the blob monster, a live brain with eyeballs accompanied by a child version of himself, Bigfoot, yetis, the hydraberg, and a lady mummy. Witch maids cleaning up, zombie bellhops carrying baggage or pushing and pulling luggage carts, and some gargoyle waiters carrying trays of tasty yet gross snacks to waiting guests.

The owner of the hotel, Count Dracula, walked down the upper right staircase with a smile on his face. He stopped in the middle of the Main Lobby stair well as he announced to one and all in a proud voice, "Welcome to Hotel Transylvania!"

The Day of the Dead Mariachi band began to play a lively tune as the Count walked down the red carpet, handing out itineraries to the passing guests.

"Human-Free since 1898," said Dracula. "You're safest destination. Take an itinerary. I have personally designed a spectacular schedule of events, all leading to my daughter's birthday extravaganza tomorrow."

"We always look forward to coming every year, Count," said a smiling gremlin as he held his wife while taking an itinerary, "We enjoy the safety so much."

"Of course." Dracula shrugged with a smile. "That's why we built it." He handed a few more itineraries to a few more guests. "Yes, good evening." A pale Gillman spoke in a strange gibberish language to which only the vampire could understand. "Thank you, Marty. You look pale as well."

Blobby the green jello-like monster blob gurgled in a strange language that only Dracula could understand, as he handed the blob and his young daughter two itineraries.

"Yes, good to see you as well, Blobby," the vampire greeted politely.

Wendy, the blob's daughter, jumped up and down cheerfully, "I'm so excited for Mavis's birthday, I hope she likes my gift!" She was carrying a green and pink wrapped package.

The blob calmly assured his daughter that Mavis will adore her present before they glided off to check in for a room.

Just then, a suit of armor came running up to vampire. "Sir! Sir! Sir!" He stopped to stand at attention and reported, "We have an urgent plumbing issue."

"Plumbing? On it." Dracula asked, and then turned serious as he summoned the hotel's plumber, "Mr. Ghouligan!"

A slumping zombie plumber staggered towards his boss.

"There is a clogged toilet in room 348," the armor continued.

Looking up at the occupant of room 348, the giant hulking figure of Bigfoot growls in apology as he shrugged his shoulders.

"It's okay, we all get stomach aches, Mr. Bigfoot," Dracula reassured the resident.

Mr. Ghouligan made a worried groaning noise as he looked at his toilet plunger.

At that time, the pack of werewolf puppies came storming inside and began a rampaging amuck all over the lobby; running over guests, jumping up and down on the organ, and urinating on the furniture.

"Hey kids, reel it in! You're only supposed to make mom and dad miserable." Wayne scolded the pups as he and Wanda came in.

One of the wolf pups was gnawing on the end of Dracula's cape when he was picked up by the Count, his mouth still holding the cape.

"Now, now. Is that anyway to behave? This is a hotel not a cemetery." Dracula told him calmly.

"Sorry, Uncle Drac," the pup mumbled with the cape still in his jaws before he let go and scampered off with his siblings.

"Drac, how are you?" Wayne greeted the Count as he and wife came over.

"Wayne, my old friend!" Dracula happily greeted him as he wrapped his arm around the Wolfman's shoulders.

"Couldn't wait for this weekend," said Wayne. "Always great to be out of the shadows for a couple of days."

"The family looks beautiful," added Dracula. "Let me just clean up their filth." Wayne and Wanda's faces dropped the moment Dracula said this before he shouted in a loud stern voice, "HOUSEKEEPING!"

Just then, a squadron of witches flew out on broomsticks and proceeded to clean up the mess they pups made of the lobby with nonstop speed. One of the witches used a live sponge to soak up one of the pups' puddle of urine.

Meanwhile, the pups knocked over the zombie bellhops causing him to drop one of the three large boxes being carried in. The box opened on impact sending Frankenstein's head bouncing out only to be caught by Dracula.

"Frankie my boy, look at you still traveling by mail, Mr. Cheap-o, huh?" Dracula greeted with a smile at his closest friend.

"It's not a money thing I have a plane phobia," Frank responded fearfully before he confessed, "I mean, at any moment now that engine could catch-"

"Fire! Yeah, yeah." Wayne interrupted before he mocked, "'Fire bad!' We know." But he decided to change the subject. "So, how's the wife and kid?"

"Oh, they're great. Eunice is still the same, and Hank is...Hey, no peeing on my son!" Frank gasped as he noticed the wolf pups urinating on the box where his son was still inside.

"Could you not do that!" Dracula immediately rushed in to shoo the pups off and away from Hank's box. He pried open the lid and pulled out the head of a golem teenage boy, while his body parts spilled out when the box toppled over.

"Hello, Hankie!" he said, grinning.

"Hi, Uncle Drac," Hank replied happily. "I'm so glad to be here. It's better than riding a plane..." his smile dropped with a scared frown, "If either engine would explode..."

"Yes, yes, we know. Fire bad," Dracula playfully teased his foster nephew.

Wayne had to grin while the Steins frowned at this brief teasing, until Dracula glanced over to the bellhops trying to put together the rest of Frank, which is not going very well. The vampire handed over Frank's head to Wayne and Hank's head to Wendy, and then rushed off to the pair of zombies assembling the rest of Frank's body.

"Augustus! Porridge head! Come on! Does that look like Frankenstein's head?" Dracula shouted, not noticing his cape moving on its own.

Wayne walked forward a couple of steps, "Hey Drac buddy, what's going on with your cape there?"

"What do you mean-AH!" He cried out and grasped his behind. "Who pinched me?" He exclaimed while turning around to look for the culprit.

"Guilty, you're irresistible," Griffin, the invisible man answered, the only thing noticeable was a pair of floating brown half-rimmed glasses.

"Yes, very amusing, Invisible Man. Hello, great to _see_ you!" Dracula sarcastically joked before he laughed, causing the others to join in the laughter.

"Ahh, never gets old," Griffin took off his glasses, folded them and hid them.

SMACK!

Dracula recovered from getting slapped in the face, chuckled slyly, before he tried to take a swipe at Griffin, who wasn't hit.

"Missed me!" Griffin taunted him before punching the vampire in the stomach. Dracula extended his claws out and tried a few more times to swipe at him, but he missed each time while Griffin taunted him more, "Miss me. Miss me. Miss me!"

Finally, Dracula sighed as he seemed to give up, "Okay, you win, hold this bacon." He slyly pulled out a slice of bacon and handed it to him.

"Wait, why am I holding bacon?" All of a suddenly, the wolf pups pounced on him, creating a visible outline of Griffin, while they gnawed on him for the bacon. "Ahh! Ah-ah! Noo! Get'em off! Ouch!"

The trio laughing hilariously at this scene, but a huge sandy wind storm blew in through the front entrance, gaining their attention. Sand clouds swirled around, forming everywhere and a large sand dune was piling up at the lobby door.

"Here Comes The Partyyyy!" Murray the mummy shouted in a huge booming voice as he slid down the mountain of sand, followed by a smaller version of himself, his name was Pedro, and he slid on his stomach over to Wendy and Hank, who had his body put together.

"Hello Murray," Dracula greeted as Murray glided toward him.

"Drac, what's up buddy?" The mummy tried to hug his vampire friend only to miss.

"The sand, Murray! THE SAND! Always with the sand!" Dracula berated the hefty mummy while rubbing his fingers together, making grains of sand fall from his fingers.

The wolf pups began to play in the mountain of sand, one of them throwing a sand ball at his brothers really hard.

"Ha, ha, ha! You guys made it!" Pedro gave Hank a head noggin in greeting but it popped Hank's head off by accident, and then he high-fived with Wendy. "I can't believe you guys actually made it!"

"Nice to see you too, Pedro." Hank picked up his head and screwed it perfectly back on his neck.

"We all got our presents for Mavis's birthday!" Wendy showed off her wrapped package, as did Hank which his was a grayish blue and indigo wrapped parcel.

"No need to worry, I got mine all ready for the birthday girl." Pedro displayed a golden Egyptian box with a lock on it. "This party's gonna be a bang, ya'll!"

"I just hope its not another accidental curse," Hank joked, making Pedro aim a dark scowl at the golem boy.

Murray rushed over to the werewolf couple, "Wolfie, Wanda, Frank!" Murray grabbed Frank's head and roared at his face. "AAAAAAH!"

"AAAAAAH!" Frank roared back right in his face.

The two monsters laughed amusingly.

Murray hugged Frank's head. "I love this guy, he's always bringing it full tilt! Your looking skinny too, now that you're just a head."

"Oh-ho-ho, okay, you'll pay for that," Frank warned, and then a zombie placed his head in his arm socket, he looked a little less than pleased. His whole body looked halfway put together, with his right hand on his neck socket.

"So what's up, Drac? The hotel is looking off the hook," Murray said as he walked over to Dracula.

Frank leaned in toward Wayne and Wanda. "Hey guys, watch this," he whispered, then concentrated on his lower half which was currently located at the other side of the lobby and briefly used as a trampoline to two wolf pups before it jumped up and left them. It carefully sneaked over to Murray, who was talking to Dracula.

"By the way, you were right about those directions," Murray told him.

"Oh, good. Good." Dracula nodded.

"Yeah. I took the Tigris through the Nile and there was absolutely no traffic."

The lower rear end of Frank appeared behind the mummy and broke wind. A big green cloud of gas appeared behind the mummy. Murray's face dropped to a confused but surprised look, while Dracula looked anything but amused by the outburst of flatulence.

"You're kidding me. Right in my lobby?" Dracula asked in a dry tone.

"Drac, I swear man, I-I don't run like that," Murray stuttered his objection, even he acted rather embarrassed, while the adults and the kids were trying to hold back their laughter.

Except for Pedro, who held his nose (if he had one) and waved his other hand in the air. "Eeww! Seriously, Dad?" he gagged on the cloud of green gas.

"Housekeeping!" Dracula called out.

A witch came zooming out on her broomstick and retrieved the thick stinky odor with a fire bellow. She hurriedly flew to the fireplace and released it into the fire, causing an eruption of green flames to shoot out of the fireplace.

A female mummy stared at Murray who confessed, "I was not the cause of that," but she walked away in a huff and Murray sank his head down in embarrassment while everyone but Dracula laughed.

A little black spider came down inches from the vampire's face. "We're ready!" the arachnid announced in a small cheery voice.

Dracula and the others looked up to see a beautiful banner saying, 'Happy 118 Birthday Mavis' made entirely out of spider web giving it a silvery finish. Then came a heart-touching chorus of "Awwwww."

"Oh, if only Martha were here to see this," Wanda sighed.

"She's always here, Wanda." Dracula smiled as he patted a fist over his heart.

"She's in all our hearts, Drac," Frank added in friendly support, "But have you ever thought about what it might be like to meet someone new?"

"We all know it hasn't been easy for you to run the hotel and raise Mavis at the same time. You must've gotten pretty lonely." Wayne takes his loving wife Wanda into his arms.

"No offense, but you can't be too picky," added Griffin. "You haven't had a date in a hundred years."

"Look guys, I appreciate your concern," Dracula said sadly but then turned firm, "but its not up to me. You only zing once, and I did. And no, I will never meet anyone else because there will never be anyone else but Martha."

"We all know that," Murray said. "But even you deserve to be happy with someone with a life as long as ours."

"I _am_ happy!" Dracula replied with a hard stubborn edge. "But no one will ever take Martha's place, that is how it will always be!"

His friends fell silence at the clear tone in Dracula's voice that it was the end of the conversation as they gathered around with the rest of the hotel guests.

"Okay friends," Dracula began his announcement to a large crowd of guests as he stepped up onto a stool made entirely out of frogs. "I am so glad you are here to celebrate, another birthday for my sweet little Mavis...and another successful year of refuge, from THEM!"

The Count's face went serious as he pointed to the nerd zombie who turned on the slideshow projector. On the screen, everyone gasped to see a slideshow of their most dangerous nemesis: humans. The pictures were all of human tourists that Dracula displayed of not-so-bad photos of humans doing everyday normal stuff, but Dracula and the monsters misunderstood it.

"These are recent human images our surveillance has uncovered. They are getting fatter so as to overpower us, and they are wearing less clothing allowing more movement to strangle us or cut open our heads and put candy in them." The crowd of monsters gasped in terror, and the Headless Horseman fainted. "But they will never find us here. EVIL VILLAIN YOU WILL NEVER WIN!" Dracula shouted the final words out to the slideshow photo of a little boy eating ice cream before he turned to smile at the crowd. "Okie-dokie, fun starts in thirty minutes. Right now I have to see my little girl," Dracula pleseantly announced as he glided toward the elevator.

"She's not so little anymore!" Frank pointed out.

"YES, SHE IS!" Dracula shouted, and stubbornly roared a feroucious vampire roar, "RAAAWWWR!" Before he returned to his normal happy demeanor again, just before the elevator door closed.

There was a few moments of awkward silence in the crowd of monsters until Eunice the bride of Frankenstein, who was still in her box, brashly spoke up.

"What's going on out there? Are we at the hotel?!" She cut open the box with one of her long fingernails and her head, held up by her arm, and continued to nag for all to hear, "Frank, did you book us for a tandem massage? Did you get us a table at Hunchback's? Did you do anything?"

Griffin closed the box and sat on it, smirking. "You're welcome." Eunice's voice was muffled but everyone could tell she was still cross.

Meanwhile inside the elevator, Dracula began to think about what his friends had told him. At first, it bothered him. "What do they know?" he grumbled. "I don't want to replace Martha." But his aching heart was torn over what he wanted. "Ugh, who am I kidding? I need to look for a date... I want to meet someone! I'm... lonely."


	4. Father and Daughter Chat

Mavis had grown up into an attractive Gothic beauty over the past two centuries, a hundred and seventeen years old going on a hundred and eighteen year old in about tomorrow. She was in her bedroom staring at the mirror, despite not having a reflection, apparently not happy about the events going on tonight for she was busy practicing the argument that would soon be coming on between her and her father.

"Dad! You said that when I turned 118, I can go out into the world like every other adult that gets to come and go from this hotel." Mavis then did an impersonation of her father, "But Mavy-Wavy, it's not safe. Bleh, bleh, bleh." She reverted back to herself while walking up the wall to the ceiling. "Dad, thirty years ago you promised. I remember, we were both eating mice and you specifically said that you gave me your word."

Outside the hallway, the elevator doors parted open, and Dracula stepped out to walk down the hall to reach his daughter's room. As he did so, the shrunken heads hanging on the doorknobs all sensed a presence and began talking their famous catchphrase, "Do not disturb" multiple times.

As Dracula paid no mind to them, he walked past one of the witch maids who smiled adoringly to her boss, greeting, "Good morning, Your Eminence."

"Maid, clean up this room!" One of the shrunken heads shouted, which caused the witch to frown in annoyance.

The Count stopped at Mavis' door, in which the female shrunken head at the door spoke to him in a snobby voice, "Oh, it's you! Glad you can make it."

"Is she up yet?" Dracula asked.

"Oh, she's up," replied the shrunken head. "She's ready to go. And by go, I mean go! As in go check the world out. What you gonna do? What you gonna say?"

"I got it covered," Dracula reassured the shrunken head. "Please, just do your job."

He turned the doorknob and opened the door, sticking his head in and smiled, "Good morning, Mavy-Wavy!" Dracula walked in to the center of the room, looking around for his daughter. "Happy birthday, my little mouse!"

Mavis appeared in front of him, upside down and nearly face-to-face with her dad, and droned, "Thank you, Dad. I know it's my birthday."

"I have so much fun planned. Whoo-hoo! But first, we go catch some scorpions together." Dracula smiled as he playfully pinched his daughter's cheek. "Just the two of us. Yes, deadums?"

"Dad!" Mavis interrupted, while she jumped off the ceiling and got back on the floor again, her back facing her father. Her face looking serious as much as the tone of her voice. "Please let me speak. There's something we have to talk about."

Dracula kept smiling as he replied, "You want to go out into the world. You can."

"Aha!" Mavis shouted, whirling around with a smirk as if she caught him in a lie. "I knew you were gonna say." She paced back and forth as she explained, "But, Dad, you know that I know that a Dracula's word is sacred. That our trust is the core of our..." Mavis stopped, as she let what father said sink, and looked at him in surprised confusion, "Wait, what?"

"I said you can go," Dracula repeated.

Mavis crossed her arms, not believing his words. "You're just playing with me."

"No, no, no," Dracula slightly waved his hands as he explained, "You're old enough to drive a hearse now, you're old enough to make your own choices. You can go."

Suddenly, Mavis' face brightened up in a happy joyful smile. "Holy rabies! HOLY RABIES!" She quickly embraced her father in a tight hug, then rushed inside the closet, and then came out now sporting a Hawaiian t-shirt, acting like a jacket over her ensemble, and placed a straw hat on her head. Giggling in delight, Mavis carried her suitcase and zoomed past a confused Dracula for the window. She transformed into her bat form, close enough to exiting the window with her suitcase.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop, wait a second, sweet fangs." Dracula stopped her in time, as a confused Mavis turned around to face him. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, well...I'm going to Paradise," Mavis shrugged, still flapping her wings. "And this is just some stuff that I thought I would need."

"Paradise?" Dracula asked.

Transforming back to her regular form, Mavis took out an old black and white postcard of Hawaii, with the title 'Paradise.' "Yeah, you know, it's that place out there where you and mom met. Auntie Wanda says you two were just like 'zing!'"

"I don't know from zing. Where did you find that?"

"In one of your drawers," she admitted, but asked, "Why won't you ever tell me about how you met?"

"It's...complicated," Dracula hesitated before he confessed, and then explained what Paradise is really called. "And it's not called Paradise. It's actually Hawaii."

"Ha-what-what?" Mavis asked in confusion to the name.

Dracula's eyes widened that his own daughter didn't understand the name, but then got right to the point as he explained, "Look, Honey, I know you're excited, but everyone has gone to great lengths to come see you on your birthday."

A strong sadness came from Mavis as she turned around and slumped on her suitcase, transforming into a bat, as she sighed, "I know...they always do. Aren't I getting a little old for these parties? I love them but...I really want to see new things. Maybe meet somebody my age."

Her bat face because all pouty, her eyes grew bigger and her lower lip quivering.

"Come on. No, no. Don't do that," Dracula pleaded, "Don't give me the pouty bat face."

Seeing her not give up, Dracula gave up at last. "Okay, there's a human village not far from here past the cemetery. You can go there and be back here in like thirty minutes or so. It should plenty for your first time."

"Well, it's not Haweewee..." Mavis sighed, but then her smile brightened up, "But it's still technically out there!" She grabbed her suitcase and flew back to her closet. "Okay, okay, okay!"

As Dracula watched her with a secret sad frown, Mavis put away her Hawaiian jacket and placed her suitcase back in her closet, before stepping out of the closet in her normal form again.

Smiling, Mavis gave her dad a big hug. "Thanks for trusting me."

Dracula smiled and embraced his daughter back. "Of course, my little one." But then his smile felt a little lower for some odd reason. "I gave you my word."

All of a sudden the door swung open, startling Dracula and surprising Mavis. In walked Frank, Eunice, Hank, Wayne, Wanda, Murray, Pedro, Griffin, Blobby and Wendy.

"Hi, guys!" Mavis greeted her uncles and aunts and cousins.

"Happy birthday!" cheered Hank, Pedro and Wendy.

"Thanks, you guys!" Mavis's smile grew brighter.

"You excited about tomorrow?" Frank asked.

"Not as excited as I am right now," Mavis told them the good news, "Your not gonna believe this, but Dad is letting me go out on my own to see a human village!"

"WHAT?!" Everyone began arguing as they tried to question Dracula what in the world was he thinking.

"Excuse me? Drac, have you lost it?" Eunice broke through the crowd and walked towards Mavis, while berating the Count, and brought Mavis in an awkward hug. "Letting your own daughter out there with those horrible humans you tell us about? That's why you built this place." She let go of Mavis and shouted at the top of her lungs, "They hate us! They're vicious! AND THEY'RE VERY LOUD!"

"And so are you," Pedro whispered, and the look on Dracula's face told he was just as irritated with Eunice's loud mouth as he was.

"Auntie Eunice, maybe they've changed," Mavis defended herself calmly. "I'm just gonna fly down the street and see how it goes."

The adults and their kids didn't object to her plan because they loved and respected Mavis as if she were a part of their own family.

"Well...if you say so," Hank said, shrugging his shoulders doubtfully.

"Okay, Honey. Be safe," Wanda advised. "Bring warm clothes and a sword."

"And look out for pitch forks," Griffin cautioned.

Blobby gurgled a warning message, which Wendy had to translate for him, "My Dad says you should use your hypno-eyes on the humans if they try to attack you, and personally I have to agree."

"Don't you let anybody scoop your brains out either," Murray warned.

"Don't let them hammer a stake through your heart, man," added Pedro.

"Maybe stay in the shadows," Wayne advised. "It's always to just observe, from under a house."

Frank frowned at the others warning and approached his niece, defending her. "Guys, guys. She can handle it. She's a Dracula, for Pete's sake." He gently placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Thanks, Uncle Frankie," Mavis smiled gratefully at her adoptive uncle.

"No problem," Frank nodded, but then he whispered to her, while at the last part, stared off into space, "But seriously. Watch out for fire. Fire bad."

Mavis felt a little weirded out by all this, but she didn't want to be rude. She then stepped towards the open window with confidence, standing on the rim of the window. She turned back to glance at the others, some of them smiling while a few looked concerned.

"Bye, everyone! I'll be back soon!" Mavis waved to them, and then flipped out the window, as she hooted out, "Whoo-hoo!"

She fell down the castle wall, letting the wind blow through her hair as she smiled, allowing the freedom of journeying outside the castle to override her fear. And when she was twenty feet away from the ground, Mavis transformed into a bat and flew towards the lake. While she was down there, she allowed her wing to dip into the water, gliding joyously above the waters. It was a splendid feeling. Flying across the open area of the lake, as she headed towards the forest, and to find the human village Dracula had mentioned before.

Frank had been watching from the open window as Mavis disappeared. "Drac, I can't believe how calm you are about her leaving. I'm proud of you." But when he turned around to face him, everyone was surprised that the vampire himself was nowhere in sight. He looked around, as did everyone else, asking, "Hey...where did Drac go?"


	5. The Village

When no one had been looking, Dracula had transformed into a bat, and started flapping like crazy to chase after Mavis. But he did his best to stay unnoticed.

"This is awesome!"

The vampire father heard her cheer as he spotted her silhouette illuminated in the moon's light above the cemetery, and now heading straight towards the village nearby.

"There's the cemetery! Just like Dad said."

When he heard Mavis say that in the distance, Dracula wasted no time as he flew at great speed through the clearing and at last came to small hidden village within the forest.

Not far from the village, Johnny was distracted by looking at a different graveyard and Elisa heard a cawing sound as she turned to one of the trees to see what made that noise. It was a raven, a very unique and beautiful raven, it had piercing black eyes and shiny dark feathers. Elisa was very drawn to the raven, despite its large size and sharp beak and sharp talons, though she wasn't always afraid of scary creatures after her childhood experience.

"Well, aren't you a pretty bird," she commented.

Then she got out her iPhone to take a picture of the raven, but before she was able to snap a photo, the raven swooped down towards her and snatched her phone right out of her hands.

"Hey!" Elisa shouted. "Give me my phone back!" She chased the raven through the forest, leaving Johnny behind.

But then when she seemed to almost catch up to the raven, Elisa didn't watch where she was going and she tumbled down a small hill. When she was able to pick herself back up, the raven dropped her phone and flew away. But as she reached down to get her phone and picked it up, she found an area she stumbled upon, much to her surprise. It was an 18th century village, out in the middle of nowhere.

Within the village, the streetlights illuminated the darkened streets, just as Dracula flew in and transformed back to his original form. The anxious Count looked around to see if the coast was clear or to make sure no one suspicious was nearby. Suddenly, there came a strange rustling in the bushes. The vampire hid himself in an alley and peeked out to watch warily for who the intruder was.

Through the bushes, a mysterious figure emerged and walked further into the area. Her garb consisted of a white jacket with a blue long-sleeved shirt underneath, dark indigo skirt, and dark walking boots. On her back, a big silver backpack she carried weakened her strength so she placed the backpack down. But the most horrifying part about this stranger was that she is…

"A HUMAN!" Dracula's eyes widened in terror. Images of angry mobs wielded burning torches and pitchforks flashed through his very eyes.

Elisa cautiously walked into the light of a nearby streetlamp. Looking at her surroundings, the village seemed pretty old to her, like it was from the 1800s. There was a fountain in the middle, a vintage dress shop, and a church.

"I've never seen such a village like this one before." Elisa gazed at the town in awe. "Maybe this is all part of an upcoming tourist attraction. I better call Jo... UMPH!"

She couldn't finish her sentence, for a cold hand covered her mouth, and she felt herself being dragged inside the alley. She struggled to get out of the aggressor's grip, but to no avail. It was almost as if his hands were made of metal. Elisa used her right elbow to strike him in the stomach, causing Dracula let go of her as he cried out in pain. She turned to confront her assailant and paused.

Elisa froze, shocked at the sight of the man before her. He was dark-haired and wearing an elegant gentleman's outfit. His dark hair was slicked and groomed back without a single strand loose. His features were pointy in a rather charming way. All of his clothing was pitch black. To top it all, he wore a black cape to crown it. What really dazzled the woman were his eyes: bright blue eyes that seemed to shine so brightly despite the darkness of the night. It was almost as if some sort of familiar purple zing cast over his eyes.

Dracula was prepared to tackle the female human right after she elbowed him in the stomach. However, the second she turned to look at him, he was speechless and bewitched. How was this possible? She was a human, the species he hated most, and yet she was the loveliest creature he had ever seen since he lost Martha. As a matter of fact, she slightly looked a lot like Martha. Except she had long wavy curls of dark brown hair, her skin tone fair with a rosy tint on her cheeks full of life like pink roses, a slender hourglass figure, thin fingers, and those pale pink lips. And her eyes - they may not be as crystalline blue as his - but those emerald green eyes were reflected in the moonlight. He couldn't take his eyes off this girl. The vampire could have sworn that he saw a familiar purple zing twinkled within her eyes. Dracula felt his head sweating, and his heart was beating fast and loud. He kept his gaze sincerely focused on the young human girl.

Elisa was almost entranced by this handsome man when she realized how he looked exactly like someone she knew from her past. "Y-you?" she gasped.

Dracula immediately came to his senses, as if he had been paralyzed himself. He looked confused when the human first spoke to him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The man's Transylvanian accent. So rich and thick, Elisa knew at once it was the same man. "Over twenty years ago? At the edge of a cliff?"

Dracula didn't seem to get it until it hit him. The image of that small, fearless, brown-haired, curiously green-eyed little girl flashed through his mind. He thought he had seen the last of the human child, until she had returned - all grown up. "You mean... you were... _that_ child?" He gasped. "But... how is this possible? No human is supposed to be here!"

Elisa raised an eyebrow. "You're making it sound as if you aren't human."

"Of course I'm not!" Dracula frowned. "Haven't you noticed that I look no different than the last time we met?"

Elisa squinted, realizing that he was right. While most people show signs of aging and wrinkles as the years fly, this man clearly showed no signs of any of those things. He looked like the same man she had met in her childhood. She was confused, until she noticed two particular things that made her face turn white as snow: his incredibly pale skin and two particularly sharp canine teeth.

"You're a... a vampire?"

"Indeed."

Elisa pinched her arm in exasperation while the Count curiously stared at her to why she did that. "I must be dreaming. I find out that the man of my childhood is actually a vampire." Her face turned paler at a dreadful thought. "Oh, man! My father is gonna freak!"

"I don't suppose you'd want me to erase your memories? The less you remember, then the more it will be like a dream." Dracula offered slyly, leaning in so close that she felt his breath touch his face, and he felt her own breathing touch her face.

"Thank you... but, no thank you. I'd rather keep my memories intact." Elisa felt uneasy at the thought of losing her memories, even if vampires like this one before her can take them away.

"I have to erase them. It's for the good of my kind." Dracula's cold demeanor started to return.

Elisa gaped at him in shock. "More of your... there are _more_ of you?!"

Dracula did not answer her. He slunk towards her, glaring. His arms reaching out to take hold of her. "Now stay still so that I can erase your memories and you will forget this encounter."

Elisa backed away nervously, but she knew her only way out would be self-defense. However, she read about vampire lore how these creatures are physically stronger and have powers that can enthrall her to his power and become helpless. "Heh-heh. Look, it was really nice seeing you again, and I appreciate your _concern_ for your folks since I'm a human being, but frankly, I'd rather not have my..."

"Woo-hoo!" A familiar distance cheer echoed in the night, and it grew closer.

"What was that?" Elisa had heard Mavis's cheer and looked around confused.

"Oh no!" Panicked, Dracula stared at the human woman. What was he going to do with her?

The second the vampire was distracted, Elisa realized it was the perfect opportunity to seize the moment and make her escape. "Hee-yah!" She charged at her target, kneeing him in the stomach and thrusted her fist in his chin, hoping it was enough to knock him out and to make her getaway.

Dracula grasped his chin and stomach, grunting from the pain he received. The vampire had never felt insulted in his undead life, except on a couple of times, but a human woman could never fight back like this. He had quite enough of her and wanted to get rid of her. But Dracula knew he could never kill her as a result of setting monsters back again.

With no other choice, Dracula tackled the human woman by catching hold of her wrists and snared her in his grasp. He clapped his hand over her mouth and snaked his other arm around her body to keep her from fighting back. Elisa was unable to struggle out of the vampire's embrace for he was much stronger than her. He carried her to the alley, and he felt that despite her normal human strength, she was strong enough to fight back, but relieved she lacked his own physical strength to do so. Glancing over at an empty shack, Dracula used his powers to toss, or rather float, Elisa right into the shack, then he floated her nearby backpack and tossed it in the empty room beside her, closing the door and locking it.

"Ragh! Aargh! Let me out, let me out!" Elisa resorted to furious threats, banging at the door. "If you don't open this door right now, I'll twist your legs into a pretzel! Or worse, I'll chain you to the roof of a barn until the sun comes out and you burn to ashes!"

Sighing with relief and ignoring her taunts, Dracula chuckled, "That was easy." He peered out from behind the corner of the alley and waited until Mavis showed up.

Mavis landed by the clock tower and peered around the mysterious town in excitement. For so long being locked away in the hotel she didn't know how big the outside world was like. And now, she was given her chance to explore it all, even if it was going to be for thirty minutes. Not wasting any time, she walked down the wall and further out in the street.

"Uh, hello? Anybody here?" She called out to the deserted town, but there was no answer.

Then Mavis noticed a window display case with two beautiful dresses. She ran over to it and peeked through the glass to admire the dresses.

Suddenly, an angry villager holding a pitchfork appeared in the display case and snarled, "Vampire!"

Another one appeared with him as he sneered, "Bite toes!"

Mavis stepped back, a bit startled, but she presented herself with a friendly greeting, "Oh! Hi, humans."

At that moment, the lights in the streetlamps turned off, all Dracula's doing to make the situation more threatening.

Mavis tried to convince the two men she meant no harm as she continued, "Everything okay? Uh, my name is Mavis Dracula and..."

"Vampire!" more angry villagers slinked out from another building, with torches and pitchforks, as one of them growled, "We take your candy!"

The villagers started surrounding the poor vampire girl, as she tried her best to reason with them, "Calm down, please. I'm friendly, really. I just wanted to say hi."

One of the townspeople tripped on his own feet and fell to the ground. His head came loose...revealing him to be a zombie, one of the hotel's staff. Giggling, the headless zombie stood back up. Dracula saw this and, in a flash and with much stealth, he scooped up the zombie head, screwed it back on his rightful body like a doll's head, placed the human mask back on the zombie's face, and zoomed out of the chaos again, just as Mavis turned around but did not see her father.

"Please, I've never hurt anyone! I'm...homeschooled!" Mavis explained, but the angry townspeople didn't seem to care. One of them held out a stick of garlic bread in her face. "Is that garlic?"

One villager stabbed one of his comrades in his head, shocking Mavis instantly and causing Dracula to face palm. The disguised zombie who got stabbed in the face, or mask, fell over and dropped his torch, setting all of the villagers ablaze. The flames caused the 'townspeople' to go aflame, creating one big bonfire.

"Holy rabies!" Mavis shouted in horror at the burning villagers on fire, not even flinching in pain. "You're on fire! Can I do anything? Can I help you?"

But the villagers nearly shoved pitchforks in her direction, not even caring she would want to help them.

As Mavis was cornered by the burning villagers, she became upset and disheartened after realizing the harsh truth, and said out loud, "Dad was right."

Dracula, who was still hiding, went wide eyed at what he heard.

Mavis's face saddened in despair, realizing her dreams were thrown away into the flames by the truth. "Dad was right." She turned into a bat and retreated back to the safety of the hotel.

A fog of violet mist swirled past the burning 'villagers' and transformed into Dracula as he watched the disappearing form of his daughter.

"It worked." He smiled, and sighed in relief. "Now my baby will be safe...forever." His plan had worked to put an end to her wanderlust, though not as originally planned, but he was glad as he watched his little girl fly away, believing that the outside world wasn't safe, and that she would stay in his hotel forever.

Hearing the groans of the 'villagers' behind him, Dracula turned to look at them with a serious frown. "Alright, everybody. Get back to work."

The villagers, though still slightly aflame, took off their masks to reveal themselves to be the zombies that worked at the hotel.

Spotting one of the zombies in front of the dress shop and trying to take a mannequin with him, Dracula scolded, "Hey! You don't need a mannequin!" The zombie silently pleaded to the Count, but he was resolved, "Leave the mannequin here! C'mon!" The zombie sulked as he dropped the mannequin.

The zombies began to tear down the village, revealing it all to be hollow and empty, like the set off a movie studio. Once Dracula was assured the work would be done soon, he transformed into a bat and took off, heading back to the hearse to check up on his daughter.

But as he did so, he failed to notice the silhouette of a familiar figure, having witnessed the entire episode in the shadows, but decided to check it out anyway.

Not wishing to waste another minute being trapped inside the old shack, Elisa backed up a few paces and prepared to ram the door down to free herself, "Raaaaagh!" Before she could, it was opened for her. Johnny had to step aside so not to get bowled over by a charging Elisa, and she slammed her entire body into a nearby wall like a cartoon character, "Oomph!"

"That's got to hurt." Johnny flinched in sympathy. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Elisa removed herself from the wall and brushed herself off and suddenly found herself in a bone crushing hug by Johnny.

"I was so worried about you! I've been looking everywhere for you!" he exclaimed in relief. "But I got your text message. What were you doing in there?"

Elisa retrieved her own backpack as she told Johnny the events that occurred. "That guy I told you about back at the bar, the one who saved my life twenty-two years ago?"

"Yeah?" Johnny nodded.

"He's a butthead. He knocked me out and locked me in here. What a jerk!" However, she briefly had a slight romantic look in her eyes. "Although... he's a really cute jerk."

"Huh?" Johnny was confused.

"Never mind," Elisa shook her head trying to act like it wasn't important, "Let's just get out here, I don't want to run into him again."

But then something caught Johnny's eye and he pointed it out. "Whoa, check out those goofy-looking dudes! They're on fire!"

Elisa saw what Johnny referred to, and watched a bunch of weird looking people with sickly green skin like it was decaying, emotionless expressions, and strange moaning sounds as they walked with slow limps, and the fact their bodies were on fire didn't seem to bother them in the least. They seemed to be heading somewhere while some of the buildings were taken down, and one of them was carrying a mannequin in a pink 19th century dress from the vintage dress shop.

"Are those real zombies?" Elisa questioned in astonishment.

"Let's follow them!" Johnny said excitedly, as he raced forward to follow the burning zombies.

"Johnny, wait!" Elisa tried to stop him, but he didn't listen so she followed him.

The two humans followed the zombies at a respectable distance. As they approached the hidden underground tunnel, Johnny looked around in amazement but he lost his footing and tumbled down into the tunnel in a clumsy roll. However, Elisa was more careful from her experience and watched her step.

* * *

Back at the hotel, the shadow of a bat transformed into the figure of a vampire in front of Mavis' bedroom door.

"Where have you been?" interrogated the suspicious shrunken head. "Why are you snooping around?"

"Shh! Quiet!" Dracula silenced the tiny head, before knocking on the door and asked as if he didn't know his daughter had returned home. "Sweetheart, have you returned so soon?"

"Come in, Dad." Mavis' voice sounded sullen.

Dracula opened the door and found Mavis, looking rather scared and distraught, sitting in on the bed. "How did it go? How was the big world?" he asked as he sat beside her.

Mavis didn't look at him, but she answered, "It was okay."

"What?" Dracula smiled gently. "What's the matter?"

Mavis knew he wasn't buying it so she finally told him the truth. "Dad, you were right. Humans are awful. They were everything you said. They wanted to bite my toes!"

"Your toes?" Dracula pretended to be shocked by all this.

"And they had garlic..." Mavis stood up and walked toward the window, "On bread!"

"WHAT?!" Dracula feigned shock as he rubbed his arms. "Look at me, I'm so scared _I'm_ getting goosebumps!" As he watched her distraught gaze out the window, Dracula added, "I am so sorry you had to see all that." He opened up his cape, allowing his daughter to hug him so he can comfortingly embrace her back.

Mavis sniffled, as she nearly sobbed, "I'm so sorry I doubted you." Those words made him smile slightly. "I'll never leave here again."

That last part made Dracula smile a little wider, secretly. "O-Okay, okay." Enlightened, Dracula pulled out of the hug and told her comfortingly, "Look, don't be sad. Daddy's gonna give you the bestest birthday ever! Look what I brought you - your wormcakes!"

He produced a plate of pancakes, with live worms squirming in it. Mavis graciously accepted his surprise birthday breakfast.

"Don't be sad," Dracula told her while stroking her chin up. "This is the year we open Mommy's present for you."

"What did she get me?" Mavis asked, smiling.

"We'll see." Dracula shrugged. "She said never to open it until your 118. We've waited this long," he continued in an overly sweet voice. He then walked toward the door, still smirking. "You eat your wormcakes, you come down whenever you're ready, Honey."

Dracula exited the room, and slowly closed the door behind him. Once that was done, he sighed in relief, knowing full well his plan had worked.

"Oooh. What did you do?" The shrunken head on the doorknob became even more suspicious of the Count's behavior.

"What I _had_ to." Dracula's mood changed as he went all serious. The shrunken head scoffed in skepticism. But the Count reassured it, "She'll thank me one day."

But the shrunken head huffed doubtfully, "That's what the guy who shrank my head said. You're going to be in big trouble when she finds out."

Dracula tied up and gagged the shrunken head to keep her quiet. Then he walked casually down the hall acting like nothing was wrong, and ignoring the muffled groans of the shrunken head.

* * *

The hidden tunnel didn't last very long or run very deep for Elisa and Johnny. As they emerged at the end of the tunnel, the path lead to a long stone bridge that lead to a huge Gothic castle perched in isolation on an island in the middle of a huge inland lake and surrounded by tall rugged mountains.

"Wow." Elisa followed the long bridge to the new castle, all the while staring in awe at how marvelous it looked. In the back of her mind, she vaguely remembered seeing this place before, like something out of a dream, but as a distant memory. Now here it was right in front of her in reality. It beckoned her. It called to her like here she will find what she had been looking for her whole life.

Maybe this is where that vampire she met before lives. Oddly, at the same time Elisa never wanted to see him again, but at the same time desperately wanted to see him again. She made her way to the castle while Johnny took another picture, clearly in awe of the mysterious castle they had found as well, but still cool about it all.


	6. Humans!

As Dracula exited the elevator back into the lobby, he let out a content sigh of happy satisfaction. The hotel was full of monsters who wished to get out of the shadows and relax for the weekend. His daughter's birthday tomorrow would be spectacular. And best of all, his little girl no longer desired to venture out into that wretched human-infested world; she would stay home safe and sound in his hotel forever more. Everything was going his way. The zombie bellhop, Porridge Head, walked up to his boss while removing his human mask and smiled, hoping he did well for Dracula, whose smile turned into a frown.

"Yes, what do you want, a cookie?" Dracula said sarcastically, and pushed the zombie aside, "You did alright, man, move on already."

As the zombie bellhop sulked off, something strange caught Dracula's eyes. Some kind of strange figure, probably a new guest, trying to budge through the revolving door until he pushed himself loose. However, it was no monster. It was some kind of large backpack, and it turned around to reveal the carrier; Johnny. While another being stepped out from behind him, Dracula recognized her; Elisa.

"Whew! Yeah." Johnny smiled happily.

Elisa looked a little surprised to see monster-looking people walking around. "Wow."

Dracula froze in shock. His face paled at what he was seeing. Two humans. In his hotel. Images of angry mobs carrying torches and pitchfork yelled accusingly at him, "Vampire!" flashed in his eyes, invading the hotel and ready to slay every innocent monster. Including his precious child.

"Humans!" the vampire whispered in dread.

Dracula flew at them like a speeding bullet, a hateful snare on his handsome face as he intercepted them, hoping no one else noticed them. Elisa had little time to shriek, as she was the only one who noticed him a second before the vampire tackled them. All three of them became trapped inside the revolving door, causing it to spin rapidly fast.

"Who are you two? And how did you find this place?" interrogated the glaring Dracula.

"Oh, I'm Jonathan and this is Elisa, but everybody calls me Johnny..." the red-haired boy introduced himself and to the young woman wedged between his backpack and the glass door, "…and I was just mountain climbing with some dudes…"

Johnny was mountain climbing up the edge of a cliff when the rope slipped and he fell.

"…they ditched me, but Elisa came to my rescue…"

Out of nowhere, Elisa frantically took hold of the rope and began pulling with all her might.

"…she invited me back to a bar she works at for lunch…"

Elisa kindly leads Johnny through the entrance of the Bats and the Belfry.

"…and we heard this story about a spooky forest…"

A frightened Nicholas and Catarina are telling Johnny about the spooky forest. Elisa looks on while drinking a cup of coffee and Johnny snaps of photo of the old couple while eating a sandwich.

"…and who's not going into a spooky forest, right?"

" _You_ decided." Elisa's voice corrected, muffled from behind the backpack.

Together, Johnny and Elisa venture into the spooky forest. Elisa trips and falls down a hill while Johnny continues to walk onward. Moments later, Johnny is snapping a photo of a spider with a skeleton face, but then he trips and falls downhill, where the view before him reveals the isolated village.

"So then I find Elisa locked inside an old shed cause she sent a text message to where she was at..."

Johnny lets Elisa out of the shack, just as she comes running out at full speed, obviously trying to break it down, only to fail and run into a wall.

"…and then we see these goofy-looking dudes on fire…"

Johnny watched the burning zombies walk by in excitement, but Elisa looks on in concern. The burning zombies trek down into a hidden underground tunnel. Johnny and Ericka follow them, except Johnny trips and falls downhill, and Elisa trails after him while trying to watch her step.

"…then we just followed them to like this amazing castle."

Elisa and Johnny glance up at the large castle of Hotel Transylvania before them. Elisa stares up at it in awe before she walks onward to check it out. Johnny, on the other hand, takes another picture.

As Dracula listened to the story, he gasped in realization, suddenly remembering the word of warning from the troll construction worker two centuries ago. An image of him in Dracula's eyes appeared as he said those words:

 _"But, of course, be smart. No bonfires, no fireworks shows."_

Dracula had forgotten the most crucial rule for his hotel, and now realized that the fire started by the zombie bellhops had lead two humans to his isolated sanctuary. Even building the village had gotten the attention of the female human and in turn she called her companion to the village, and the zombies lead them right to his home. His perfect plan to forever protect Mavis had backfired and blown up in his face.

He then leaned in closer to the young boy's face as he asked worriedly, "How many of you are there?"

"Just us," Johnny replied, "I like to hit it alone, but Elisa wanted to tag along cause she's been in the spooky forest before since she was a kid."

Dracula quickly glared over at Elisa. She was giving him a death glare as she squeezed her way out of being suffocated by the giant backpack, for she was still furious the vampire had tried to erase her memories, and for imprisoning her in an empty shack.

"You meet so many awesome people in the youth hostels," Johnny continued, still as cheerful as ever. "Hey, speaking of awesome..." he eyed Dracula's cape and touched it as he squealed, "...that cape thing is KILLING IT! Is there, like a costume party here or something?"

Dracula glared at this 'Jonathan' with annoyed anger, like saying 'Don't touch the cape,' while Elisa had at last freed herself of the giant backpack. Then suddenly he grabbed them both and smothered the two humans in his chest, trying to hide them from view. "What have I done? This is all my fault!" Dracula's voice whimpered, as if he made a deadly deal with the devil.

Hoping to salvage the situation, he told the humans in near panic, "You have to leave." The Count ran out of the rapidly spinning door and began to run with enhanced vampire speed to the bridge, when his eyes widened as he mumbled worriedly, "Oh, no."

"Excuse me, one of your piranhas in the lake is very rude, he ate my sister-in-law," a female gremlin complained as she walked up to the entrance.

"Be right with you." Dracula stammered, rushing back into the hotel, once again he is stopped, this time by the Hydra; six heads, different personalities, and one of those heads was a female.

"Mr. Dracula, we asked for a room with a view of the pool," one said.

"The rooms fine, we wanna book a massage," another said.

"Yeah, Swedish."

"Shiatsu!"

"Aroma therapy!"

"We don't want hot stone," all of them said at once.

"I'll get back to you Mr. Hydraberg," Dracula said hurriedly as he left.

"I hope so!"

"I doubt that!"

"See that you do!"

"That's Ms. Hydraberg."

Elisa's nose couldn't stop inhaling the vampire's scent. For a creature of the night, he smelled like pine or fragranced roses which, in her opinion, smelled better than creepy cologne. "Ahh…I didn't know he smelled so nice. I wonder if he smells this good when he sleeps…UGH! Quit thinking like Bella! This isn't Twilight!" She scolded herself. As she breathed in his chest, Elisa could feel the vampire's heavy breathing and listening to Dracula's heart beating rapidly.

Meanwhile, a dreadfully nervous Dracula dodged and navigated his way around the crowd of monsters while keeping Johnny and Elisa hidden close in his grip.

"Seriously, what's up? It's kind of funky to breathe under here," Johnny said, not completely used to the old scent he inhaled.

Dracula hissed at him to silence him under his breath, until he heard a familiar voice.

"Drac! Hey Drac, how'd it go with Mavy?" Frank asked as he walked down the staircase, but Dracula fearfully hid behind a pile of guest luggage before throwing himself into the storage room. "Hey, where'd you go?" Frank looked around but there was no sign of his friend.

Inside the storage closet, Dracula pressed his ear against the door, making sure no one was coming in. Elisa was straightening her skirt out whilst Johnny looked around in amazement.

"Wow, this room is kind of small for a big castle. No bed, but check out these awesome dustpans they give you." He said as he held up a skeleton dustpan.

"That is neat." Elisa clearly wasn't in the mood, but she had to admit the skeleton dustpan looked interesting.

"Quiet, you fools!" Dracula hissed, and then he pushed Johnny to the wall and rapidly dug through his backpack. "What weapons are you keeping in this container? Your pitchforks?" He pulled out a t-shirt, that hasn't been washed since who knows when, only to be overpowered by its stinky stench.

"OHHH! I can't breathe! It's killing me!" Dracula yelled in agony, while he used his cape to cover his face as he fell to the floor.

"Phew! And I thought Gerald's brother never washes his underwear." Elisa held her nose.

"Yeah, definitely due for a fluff and fold," Johnny tossed the shirt back in the backpack's pocket.

A buzzing sound came from his pocket. Dracula snatched it out of Johnny's pocket and examined the electronic device, puzzled and angry. "What is this? A torture device? A secret mind-controller? You won't read my thoughts! I won't let you!"

"Dude, it's just music. Here, try it." Johnny placed two earplugs in the vampire's ears and played the song, 'Sexy and I know it' by LMFAO.

The music blasted in his ears. Dracula's face dropped to confusion and fear. He screamed in agony and took out the ear-buds. "OHHHH! IT'S TAKING MY SOUL! AHHH!" He screamed once more, having his hands on his ears as if in pain.

"What? It's a good jam. Don't be a grandpa." Johnny said, offended but still smiling.

Elisa giggled at the grandpa comment. But she ceased her giggling when Dracula began going through her own backpack. She tugged hard at the backpack's arm, glaring daggers at the vampire.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Elisa argued. "Don't you know it's impolite to look through a lady's belongings?!"

"Shut up! Let me see what you are hiding in your container." Dracula growled back at her, pulling her bag back again. He pulled out a white I Heart NY t-shirt.

Confused to what kind of clothing it was, Dracula asked, "Where did you get this? Did you steal it off a poor Gremlin lady?"

Rolling her eyes, Elisa snatched the shirt out of his grip. "Ugh. No, I didn't steal it from a Gremlin lady."

Another strange device caught the vampire's eye. Dracula reached into the backpack's pocket and pulled out a black, portable, digital camera. "What is this box for? Some secret weapon? A head smasher?"

As he examined the camera suspiciously, Dracula unknowingly held the camera facing in his direction and pressed a button. The camera flashed right in his eyes, causing him to scream.

"OHHH! I CAN'T SEE! I'M BLIND!" He screamed once again, covering his eyes in agony and accidently stumbled upon the crates that had been kept inside the closet, and the crates toppled over and fell upon the vampire.

Elisa started to laugh at the vampire's reaction to having his picture taken, and the events that unfolded afterword. "If you wanted a picture, we'll do a selfie later," she teased.

Emerging from the pile of crates, Dracula's sight finally cleared of dancing dots and starbursts. He towered over Elisa and Johnny, glaring at them with deep hate. "You both need to go. No human has ever entered this castle. And if someone should see either of you…the safety of the hotel, the sanctuary…No one would ever come again!" He hunched over, shutting his eyes fearfully.

"Oh, yeah, go for it! 'Ever come here again!' I love your Dracula voice it's so over the top," Johnny commented.

"Dracula?" Elisa raised an eyebrow. Could this vampire before her be the real Count Dracula she heard stories about?

Dracula fell to his knees, his face paled. "And Mavis, if she saw the two of you, she would know that I lied. Nooo!" He sobbed, his head dropped in his hands.

"Who's Mavis? Is this her room? I'm good with a roommate. I've had six brothers growing up so I can totally share." Johnny said.

"Are you're going to kill us both, since we discovered your castle?" Elisa asked, worriedly.

"I can't kill him or you," Dracula responded. "It would set monsters back hundreds of years."

Elisa sighed in relief. "Oh, good."

Johnny continued to blabber on like the chatterbox he was. "One time in Hamburg I roomed with this dude who I caught stealing my shampoo and I said 'Whoa man,' and he threw a flower pot at me, but he was cool."

"What are you babbling about?" Dracula glared at him, clearly not in the mood for senseless chatter.

"What are you talking about?" Elisa asked, at the same time Dracula spoke. Even she had no idea on what he was saying.

"What-whoa! Check out these awesome costumes," Johnny said as he looked though old uniforms and clothing.

"Costumes." Dracula's eyes lit up, as if a light bulb appeared above his head.

Elisa looked at him suspiciously when he said this.

Johnny looked startled as his backpack is taken off his back and Dracula sets down at the corner. "Uh, sorry man, I can't leave here without my backpack you know everything I own is in there."

"It'll be right here," Dracula reassured.

"Okay, it's just, I love my backpack," Johnny said.

With a wave of his hand, Dracula forced Johnny to stay still and made him fall asleep. He snored loudly but the vampire made him close his mouth by making him suck his thumb.

"What did you do to him?!" Elisa growled in a worried tone for her friend.

Dracula did not respond. He smirked in her direction tapping his fingers together. "He'll be fine. Now, hold still." A black witch's dress costume, levitated out of an old box in the back of the room and drifted into the Count's waiting hands. A green paint bucket complete with a brush resting on top drifted in the Count's free right hand, gripping on the bucket's handle.

Elisa looked at the vampire's smirk, then at the dress, and then at the pain bucket. She felt her stomach drop in an instant. "Oh, no. I know what you're thinking. Please, no…"

Dracula ignored her as he walked towards her. Elisa frightfully backed up against the wall as the vampire came closer to her with the face of a pervert.

A witch maid kept herself busy sweeping the stone floor with her magic broom. She thought she heard a woman's squealing as she made her way past the storage closet. Shrugging it off, the witch went back to her sweeping.

Back to the inside of the storage closet, Dracula had finished dressing up Elisa in her 'costume.' He stood back and examined her appearance.

"Well, how do I look?" Elisa implied. Her entire body was covered in green paint to make her look witch-y. She wore a plain black pointy hat, a black dress with a collar, and black lace tights on her legs with black pointy shoes.

"Perfect!" Dracula responded, after a moment of examining her appearance and deciding she looked good. Then he waved his hand, making Johnny wake up from his slumber. He blinked and yawned, stretching his arms out.

"What happened? I had an awesome dream about meeting a girl and…Whoa!" Johnny glanced at Elisa in surprise. "Ellie, is that you? You look awesome!"

"Thanks." Elisa blushed, and then she examined herself in a small mirror. "Hmm, if I didn't know any better, I look like Elphaba from Wicked."

Without warning, Dracula had Elisa frozen in her place while he shut her eyes.

"Your turn." Dracula smirked to the younger man.

"Huh?" Johnny looked at him confused.

From outside the storage closet, Johnny could be heard laughing and yelling whilst Dracula forced him to wear a 'costume.' A few minutes later, Johnny came out. He was painted a pale blue color with black stitch marks on his neck and hands, his red hair was straight up, and he wore a trench coat over his shirt.

"Check it out I'm a Franken-Homie!" Johnny grinned in excitement as Dracula pushed him and Elisa out of the storage closet.

"Yes, hello," Dracula said.

"Look at meee!"

"This is totally normal, not a problem here. These are just monsters with me." Dracula smiled, pretending as if nothing weird is going on.

A blue Gillman let out a wolf whistle, following his gaze on Elisa with a lustful grin. Elisa shuddered in fear when the Gillman forcibly took her arm and began kissing it. A gesture that suddenly made Dracula very protective of her. He shot the Gillman a death glare, his upper lip twisted in a threatening snarl and an animalistic growl rumbled in his throat. He wrapped am arm around Elisa's waist, pulling her closer to him. The Gillman released his hold on Elisa's arm, smiling innocently at the scowling vampire before he ran off. Elisa could not believe that Dracula did that for her, despite their not so friendly encounter.

"Everybody stepped it up tonight. Wait, why are we going to the front door? Are we leaving?" Johnny asked as he's pushed toward the door.

"Wait, you're kicking us out?!" Elisa frowned at him, but he only responded to her with a chuckle.

Dracula had a devious grin on his face. He would seem like he'd finally get rid of these humans when another obstacle came in the way.

"Bonjour, Monsieur Dracula!" Quasimodo, the head chef, came nose to nose with Johnny.

"Hey sniffy, what's going on?" Johnny said before he and Elisa were pushed back behind Dracula.

"Not right now, Quasimodo," Dracula said, clearly distressed.

He suddenly came face to face with the little chef's pet rat Esmeralda, who began squeaking, jumped on him and sniffed him. Dracula broke into a cold sweat as the rat scurried and sniffed his body. She stopped and squeaked again, signaling she found something.

"What?" The chef asked. Esmeralda squeaked again. Quasimodo scoffed. "No, don't be absurd, iz not a human iz Monsieur Dracula."

Dracula chuckled nervously, "How ridiculous, of course it's me." He grabbed the rat and threw her into one of the open elevators.

"Monsieur, ze deviled lizard fingers," Quasimodo presented the tray held up by one the gargoyle waiters.

Dracula stopped his awkward laughing. He didn't like what the chef had made him. "Deviled lizard fingers?! I asked for spleens and blankets!"

Quasimodo turned to the gargoyle and began yelling at him while shoving the food at his face.

While Dracula was busy dealing with the crazed hunchback chef, Elisa took the liberty to sneak away from the vampire and Johnny and look around the lobby. It was the most amazing thing she had ever seen: it was like those medieval castles she read about during bedtime stories or the ones she learned about on school field trips and lessons, only it was filled with diverse species of monsters who were friendly to one another and behaved like normal people at a normal hotel. For some reason, Elisa felt more curious to learn about this place rather than try to sneak out of here. She was so amazed by the surroundings that she failed to notice somebody bumping into her.

"Watch where you're going!" came a brash female voice. Elisa turned around and saw that she was looking at Eunice, the Bride of Frankenstein, dressed in a 1950s outfit. Eunice looked angry at first until she studied Elisa's appearance. "M-Martha?! What are you wearing?!"

"What are you talking about?" Elisa looked confused. "My name's not Martha."

Eunice studied the woman's pretty features carefully and noticed the color of her hair and eyes before she understood that this was not whom she thought she was. "Sorry." She stared hard at the young woman. "I've never seen you around the hotel before. Who are you? A distance witch relative of Martha?"

"Oh! My name is Elisa." The brunette politely introduced herself. "Nice to meet you, uh…"

"Call me Eunice, darling."

"Nice to meet you, Eunice. Ooh! I love your hair." Elisa complimented.

Eunice smiled proudly at this compliment. She didn't know why but she was starting to like this new witch.

Meanwhile, Johnny had made his way to a female skeleton standing in the lobby. "Whoa, check that costume out! Seriously, how are you pulling this off? It's like I can..." And when he put his hand through her ribcage, he only made her scream.

Her angry skeleton husband approached him threateningly. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"

Johnny trembled, as the truth overtook him at this point. "Uh...she's...she's real. You're real."

"Yeah! And I'll give you a real beating!" yelled the angry skeleton. "Keep your hand out of my wife!"

He punched the red-haired young man in the face, sending him back into the giant foot of Bigfoot. Finally, it was too much for Johnny and he began to scream in sheer panic, realizing that this was no costume party and every monster in the lobby is real.

Dracula heard the screams and turns around to see neither Johnny nor Elisa are behind him anymore. "Oh, no!" Dracula gasped, and then headed off to find them as soon as possible.

Elisa became startled by the screaming, but Eunice wasn't worried. "Ugh. A redhead version of my husband."

"Uh, I have to go. Nice talking to you." A frantic Elisa left a baffled Eunice as she left to go find Johnny.

Johnny, on the other hand, continued to hysterically scream bloody murder. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

His extremely loud screaming caused a Mexican band of skeletons to start playing a tune. Johnny began running around like a mad man having his arms out waving about. He stepped on a brain which floated up and hissed at him. Johnny ran away in disgust until he bonked heads with the Headless Horseman who is the hearse driver making his pumpkin head fall off. Johnny screamed looking down the hole and took off. He encountered some more monsters like the gargoyle waiters, coming face to face with a large fly. A giant tarantula walked over him and Johnny got even more freaked out, trembling with fear.

Dracula looked around for Johnny and he gaped when he spotted him sliding down a trail of slime made by the green blob monster. He bounced off and crashed into the witch who was still sweeping and grabbed her broom, which caused the broom to take off before Dracula could catch him.

Johnny went airborne on the magic broom, screaming his head off. The broom flew towards Elisa and struck her, causing her to slide on the green slime trail left behind by the blob monster. Dracula only had little time to react just as Elisa collided into his form. The landing for Elisa felt soft but cold.

Groaning and opening their eyes, Elisa and Dracula gazed at one another when they recovered from their crash. Everything suddenly seemed to slow down all around them. Their noses were touching and their lips were close enough to a kiss. Elisa blushed a lot. To be honest, the vampire's handsomeness was too much for her. His blue eyes didn't stop hypnotizing her. She felt as if time froze between the two. Dracula felt embarrassed and disloyal. He had been a faithful widower, and yet, this female human was so captivating. How is it possible that she could be as lovely as his Martha when they felt something back at the village?

"Uhhh, are you alright?" Elisa broke the awkward silence between them.

"Yes." Dracula brushed off the thoughts he had earlier, reminding himself that she is only a human and he despised humans.

He allowed her to pick herself off his body, and just as he got to his own feet Johnny flew right over their heads, barely hitting them. Johnny zipped left to right all over the lobby as Dracula and Elisa looked on.

At that time, Mavis was walking down the staircase helping Wanda down the steps.

"Honey, we didn't know where you were," said Wanda, "We thought you were still out."

"Oh no, I don't know why I ever wanted to leave," Mavis replied as she shrugged, "The humans were so boring."

Little did Mavis know she was going to regret her words. Johnny flew over their heads. Mavis looked up to see who it was but it was too late. Johnny eventually crashed into Mavis. The force of the crash sent them down to the floor with a thump. Both of them sat up, groaning from the pain. Mavis rubbed her forehead for a moment, then looked up at who bumped into her.

Just like Dracula and Elisa when the two first saw each other, Mavis and Johnny were frozen in place, almost as if the entire lobby didn't exist to them. Eyes locked in each other; as if a spell had been cast over them. A purple shimmer in their eyes twinkled within both of their eyes. It told of a feeling they felt instantly the second their eyes had met.

However, Dracula got in the way, shielding off Johnny with his cape as he looked down at his daughter with deep concern. "Mavis, honey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so. That was weird," Mavis replied, dazed.

"Ohh, my head hurts," Johnny groaned.

"What were you thinking?!" Elisa's harsh voice could be heard scolding the younger boy behind the vampire's cape. "You could've seriously hurt that poor girl, or you could've caused an accident!"

"I'm sorry," Johnny whined in the pain of head.

"Umm, who are they?" Mavis curiously pointed to the strangers behind her dad's cape.

"Who is what?" Dracula innocently asked, but then smirked sheepishly as if it wasn't important. "Oh! Oh, that? That is eh…nobody."

"Seriously, Dad." Mavis replied in a deadpanned voice, knowing her father was trying to make up a lame excuse.

"DAD?!" Johnny and Elisa moved aside Dracula's cape, their eyes widened in surprise.

"Yeah, I know. Dracula's daughter. Everyone freaks out at first." Mavis rolled her eyes, as she knew she got this question a lot before.

"DRACULA?!" Johnny yelled, his hysteria got bigger.

" _THE_ COUNT DRACULA?!" Elisa gasped, it was just as thought.

"Okay, we gotta go," Dracula quickly took both Johnny and Elisa away with a swish of his cape, and rushed up the stairs, leaving Mavis completely suspicious to what her father was up to.


	7. Party Planner and Assistant Manager

The door opened to one of the spare hotel rooms. A screaming Johnny ran in, frantically pounding on the door windows. Elisa followed after him, just as scared as he was. Who wouldn't be scared when you're in the presence of one of the most feared vampires in the world?

"Please don't kill me, I'm so young!" Johnny cried, banging on the window to try to escape, while Dracula slunk towards them with a glare on his face. "I have so many places I want to see. I got tickets to a six day Matthew Band concert."

Elisa picked up a candlestick on a dresser close by, took off the wax candle, and held up the two objects combined to make it into the shape of a cross, hoping it would repel the vampire. "Stay away from us!" she exclaimed. "I know you're terrified of the holy cross!"

"Ohh, I'm getting out of here." Johnny opened a cellar door and quickly jumped down through it.

A sudden, loud roar shook the whole room with bones thrown out. Johnny screamed and sprinted back out, zooming towards the bed and climbed up the red drapes. Elisa screamed at the roar and was immediately at Johnny's side in a flash.

Slouching, Dracula walked towards the open trap door. "Shut up already. It's impossible to think with all your noise." Through the open door, Dracula smiled and spoke politely, "Sorry Glen, go back to sleep." He shut the trap door and slunk towards the bed while Glen roared in response, causing the room shake again.

Hoping she could attempt to reason with the vampire, Elisa spoke frightfully but as politely as she could, "Mr. Dracula, we mean you no harm and I apologize for my friend crashing into your daughter so...please don't suck his blood or mine!" Still holding the candle and its stick as a crucifix, Elisa cautiously held it up in the unamused vampire's face.

"Why on earth would I want with your blood? The only thing I want is the both of you to shut up!" Dracula grunted in irritation, before he gazed credulously at her made up crucifix. "And stop doing that! A cross doesn't scare me." He knocked the candle and its stick out of her hand, surprising the young woman that the Prince of Darkness was not even a teensy bit repelled by the crucifix.

"Wait, aren't you gonna suck my blood?" Johnny asked, still clinging off a drape from the bed.

Dracula sighed before he sat down, gripping his head in frustration. "Ugh! Classic human paranoia. Human blood is so fatty and you never know where it's been."

"So, Dracula doesn't drink blood?" Johnny carefully climbed down from the drape and approached the vampire.

"Does this mean you're a vegetarian?" Elisa asked with a puzzled look, as she sat down beside the Count.

"No, I use a blood substitute," replied Dracula, "either near blood or blood-beaters, you can't tell the difference."

"So, wow, you're like, the real Count Dracula, like, 'I am Dracula, bleh, bleh, bleh.'" Johnny did an impersonation of the Count, mimicking the Hollywood style of Dracula.

"I've never said that in my life. 'Bleh, bleh, bleh.' I don't know where that comes from," Dracula frowned, disgusted by this phrase humans made of him before he stood up.

Elisa snickered at the mention of 'bleh, bleh, bleh.'

"What are you laughing at?!" The vampire growled at her angrily.

Elisa ceased her giggling. "Sorry, it's just…" She took a deep breath with a grin on her pretty face. "I never would have thought that the infamous Count Dracula from folklore legends actually exists. It's like: wow!"

Dracula stared confusingly at the female human. Why on earth was she behaving as if she wasn't afraid of him? And what did she mean of him being 'infamous'?

"Uh, can I just ask? What exactly is this place?" Johnny looked around, slightly curious.

"What is this place?" Dracula walked over to the door windows. They suddenly opened, allowing the wind to blow his cape back and the moonlight to illuminate down on him, like a spotlight. "It's a place I've built for all those monsters out there lurking in the shadows, hiding from the persecution of humankind. A place for them and their families to come to and be themselves. A place void of torches, pitchforks, and angry mobs. A place of peace, relaxation, and tranquility." He finished with his fist clinging to his chest and his head bowed down in a dramatic manner.

Elisa watched quietly in awe when he had finished his speech. She felt like it was an honorable thing he did, protecting his species from the harms of discrimination, and she walked up to him. "Is that what you meant when you said this place is a sanctuary for monsters?"

Dracula turned his gaze towards her. "Yes." His cape blew in her direction, as if reaching out to beckon her into his embrace. The vampire's expression softened while his eyes stared deeply into her own. She understood the serene emotion from his performance and his devotion to protect monsters.

However, the moment came to an abrupt end when Johnny clarified what the vampire really meant with a grin. "Cool, so it's like a hotel for monsters?"

There came a brief moment of silence as the beauty and the vampire frowned at having their moment killed.

Dracula frowned at this human boy for ruining his drama, while he sarcastically remarked, "Yes, exactly. 'A hotel for monsters.' Way to sum it up."

"Thanks for killing the mood, Johnny," Elisa grunted flatly, looking equally annoyed as was the vampire for ruining the moment.

Dracula swiftly sped up to him in a flash. "Okay, hop on my back. We're leaving." A blue mist replaced where he stood and a black bat with red eyes was in the Count's place.

"Whoa, man! You're a bat now. I always wanted to fly. What's it like?" Johnny asked, easily amazed.

"Wait! How are you going to carry the two of us?" Elisa asked.

"Just hang on to his legs!" Dracula replied sternly.

The vampire bat picked up Johnny by the collar of his jacket. Elisa abruptly took hold of Johnny's two legs and held on tightly. Then the little bat proceeded to fly them out the window, with a little strain on his strength and the weight of carrying two humans out the balcony window.

Johnny continued to ramble on, excitedly. "This is insane. Wait! Wait, I want to stay. Can Frankenstein sign my costume? Can I meet the Invisible Man? Hey, if I suck my hand in the Invisible Man's mouth, would it disappear?"

No sooner her feet left the balcony, Elisa looked straight down and her face grew pale. The ground was suddenly replaced to a foggy cliff. The blood-curdling screams of her child self were ringing in her ears. Her pulse quickened and fear gave way to panic.

"On second thought, I agree with Johnny! I think we should stay here for the night!" Elisa began to hyperventilate. Struggling desperately to cling onto to Johnny's waist, eyes shut tight refusing to look down again. Johnny giggled, feeling Elisa's fingers tickle at his feet and waist.

"Stop moving!" Dracula snarled.

He attempted to fly these two nuisances out of the room, and out of the hotel, for good. But his plan failed the second a female black bat with blue eyes flew in front of him, halting her father in his path.

"Hi!" Mavis greeted.

"Mavy!" Dracula nearly froze upon seeing his daughter show up out of nowhere. "Wha-what are you doing here, my sweet little blood-orange? Our friends were just leaving."

"Yeah, he was flying us out the window," Johnny answered, earning Dracula a confused face from his daughter.

Dracula chuckled nervously, as he flew back inside the room with his two passengers, transforming back to his normal form, "This guy is so funny. Oh look, Elisa, your friend has something on his face." He moved them to the back of the room and spoke in a soft yet tense whisper to the both of them. "Play along if you ever want to see your precious backpack, or if you ever want to leave here alive."

Johnny gulped fearfully of his threat. Elisa was not as concerned about her backpack like Johnny is, but she was intimidated by Dracula's threat of getting out of this alive.

However, Johnny's fears vanished when he noticed Mavis fly into the room and transformed from her bat form back to her original form, right before his eyes. He was quite impressed. "Whoa! So, wait, you didn't have any clothes on when you were a bat, or were they bat-sized?"

"Johnny!" Elisa scolded through her teeth, believing that questioned sounded inappropriate, especially when asking it in front of Mavis's father.

Mavis stared at him, looking slightly freaked out. "Who exactly are they?"

A whimpering Dracula had to think of a lie and quick. He turned around and gave her an awkward smile. "Honeybat, you see, it's your birthday and, you know, I want you to have the bestest, specialist party of your life. So…well…I…needed some help."

"You needed help?" Mavis was not entirely convinced, as if she never heard him say that before.

"Well, look, I am very good, but, I thought it would be even more bestest, specialist if someone closer to your age helped planned the party," Dracula fibbed, whilst he adoringly poked his daughter's nose before holding Johnny closer to his cheek.

"You're my age?" Mavis asked excitedly, suddenly up towards the red-headed stein boy's face.

"Sure! Well, how old are you?" Johnny asked.

"118."

This almost made Johnny shout in hysteria, "ONE HUNDRED AND-UGH!" But Dracula elbowed him hard in the ribs. Recovering from the air knocked out of his stomach, he grunted in a strained voice, "Yeah, um…I'm 121."

"Really?" Mavis' eyes widened in excitement.

Johnny nodded, still aching from the blow to the gut.

"And who is she?" Mavis curiously asked, noticing Elisa standing behind her father.

"Oh, uh...she's um..." Dracula stuttered, trying to think of another lie.

Luckily for him, Elisa had immediately thought of the perfect lie for him. "I'm your dad's new assistant manager. My name's Elisa." Holding out her hand for a handshake, Elisa felt Mavis place her gloved hand in her own and shook it in a friendly manner while the two of them smiled. "He hired me to help run the hotel while they party plan for your birthday."

"Wait, no! She's not my..." Dracula tried to object, only to then have Elisa elbow him in the ribs, the same thing he did on Johnny. "Oh, yes," he grunted while he shot Elisa an equally hard glare, "Yes, I did."

Mavis glanced at her father a confused look since hiring an assistant manager was not like him, and she once dreamed of being an assistant manager of the hotel herself in her early teen aged years, but didn't expect her father to hire a young witch to take that kind of job. But Elisa was very kind to her and seeing her stand up to her father convinced the young vampiress that with her as an assistant manager sounded perfect, and who knows, perhaps Mavis might get a job that requires being co-manager herself.

Dracula then recovered to say, "You see, everything is very, very normal. I'm throwing a party, and they're helping."

"SIR!" The room' suit of armor spoke up all of a sudden, catching all four of the occupants' attention. "There's an emergency!"

"Not now!" Dracula shouted, "Can't you see we're in the middle of something very normal here?"

Startled by the suit of armor suddenly coming to life, Johnny got spooked and hid behind Dracula when he spoke to it. Elisa was spooked at first but then stared at it in fascination. No longer frightened, Johnny got the courage to go check out how the armor worked. Elisa decided to follow him, her curiosity piqued as well.

"Wait! What's going on here?" Mavis asked, crossing her arms and looked up at her father suspiciously. "There's an emergency in your precious hotel and you're not rushing to fix it? Why, is it because of them? Why not have Elisa fix it since she's your new assistant manager?"

Meanwhile, Johnny flicked at the helmet of the armor. "Whoa, look at my face! Rragh!" he exclaimed in enthusiasm.

Johnny began making ridiculous faces on the reflective surface of the armor guard, which annoyed the guard as it tried to push Johnny away, but it broke out into a hilarious slap fight between them.

"Incredible." Elisa examined the armor's figure, trying to figure out how the armor could walk and talk. "How is this possible?"

"Uh...because, uh, she's not fully trained yet, and I have to train her because she's not ready," Dracula replied, pleasantly. "And no, Precious Bones, it's not because of them."

In the midst of the spat, Elisa got accidently elbowed in the face by the guard. "OUCH!" In retaliation, she karate-chopped the guard's heard off its body. "HI-YAH!"

"Good," Mavis concluded. "Then go check on the emergency and I'll keep them company." She nodded over to Elisa and Johnny.

"NOOO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!" Dracula shouted, nearly panicking as he gripped his daughter by her shoulders, looking rather frightened by that notion.

"What?" Mavis was startled by his outburst, but she was confused.

Realizing he almost gave himself away, Dracula calmed himself down to explain, "I mean...because he needs time to plan, and I have to train Elisa. And if you're keeping them company, then...he's not planning and she's not training. They're, uh, company keeping." He opened the door to let her out. "And the plan...it doesn't get planned."

The Shrunken Head on the doorknob, which may have been on to the Count's lies, remarked sarcastically, "Mm-hmm. Good one."

"Shut up!" Dracula snarled at the voodoo head while his hands made tight fists.

"Okay," Mavis said, buying her father's excuse, for now, and going to lift the helmet's visor, which somehow got onto Johnny's head, over his face, "Then, maybe if you're not planning later, or if you're not training, we could hang out."

"Sounds good," Johnny said happily.

"Alright," Elisa agreed, hopefully.

"Yes, it sounds good. So you will hang out." Dracula butted in, still smiling and scooting Mavis out the door. "See you later, my Honey. Heh, heh, Lovely." But then he slammed the door shut, glaring back at the two disguised humans. His voice aggravated, "Okay, you are not hanging out...nobody is hanging out!" he said in a hard tone, "Because you're both leaving."

"But, the opposite you said..." Johnny argued in confused disappointment.

"Don't take it personally, Johnny," Elisa added in her own disappointment, "He's an overprotective parent, so nobody's good enough for his daughter."

Dracula briefly shot her a scorning frown while he searched for a switch panel to the hidden passage concealed behind the stone wall, and when he finally found it he pressed against the stone. The secret door opened to reveal a secret entrance and blew a wind current into the room, blowing Dracula's regal cape behind him, which briefly made him look even more entrancing in Elisa's eyes.

"But, sir, the emergency!" the armor's helmet tried to remind its master, its visor moving in Johnny's face while he still wore it, but Dracula ignored the helmet.

"Follow me!" he commanded to the two humans, and flew up the stairs with a trail of blue mist behind him, with both humans following close behind while Johnny threw the helmet aside.

"Boy, that kid smelt," the helmet grumbled to itself, just after the doors rumbled closed.


	8. New Friends and Party Ideas

Deep in the underground catacombs of the hotel, Dracula carried a burning torch for light while he sped walked down a darkened stairwell, along with Elisa and Johnny following after him.

"Where are we going?" Johnny asked, as he and the brunette woman followed the grumpy vampire down the stairwell.

"I hope not to some underground pit to feed us to a giant squid," Elisa said worriedly.

Dracula rolled his eyes, sounding annoyed. "Just getting rid of you two through a secret tunnel so she does not see us."

"So, can I ask you a question?" Johnny asked when he caught up with them. "Is that real, about the garlic thing?"

"Yes, I cannot have it," Dracula replied as he touched his neck. "My throat swells."

"And the holy cross doesn't repel you. But what about holy water?" Elisa asked.

"Neither of those things work," Dracula responded.

The trio came to a labyrinth; a maze filled with multiple tunnels all leading to different routes.

"Huh. Wooden steak to the heart?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah, well, who _wouldn't_ that kill?" Dracula bluntly replied, as he led them down a side tunnel.

"What about sunlight? Do you turn to dust when exposed to sunlight?" Elisa asked, curiously.

Dracula uncomfortably didn't know why these two humans were asking him these questions confirming his weaknesses, believing they'll use them against him. But he decided to answer the human girl's question. "No, but it does burn...gradually."

"How old are you?" Elisa asked, not entirely sure why she asked his age.

Her questioned distracted him so he suddenly walked into a wall, cheek first. A dead end in the tunnel. Dracula grunted in frustration at having led them down the wrong corridor and turning around. "I'm 532," he answered, not entirely sure why he had to.

Elisa's eyes widened. He looked really good for his age with no wrinkles on his face and not a strand of gray hair. In fact, had he been human surely he would have been dead a long time. "Wow! You look like a man in his thirties," she said. "I happen to be twenty-seven."

The trio walked through a second corridor. Dracula found what he was looking for: a torch holder embedded in the wall. "Ah, here we go," he said, and pulled the torch holder down, since these torch holders were activated to open secret passages.

It revealed a room with a large bed with bright magenta coverings and had a romantic intimate feel to it. Two tiny dots, fleas in fact, chittered loudly at them in outrage. Johnny looked at them with interest. Elisa had a look of confusion.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm a little lost," Dracula quickly apologized for barging in on the tiny couple. "Yes, I know it's your honeymoon. I apologize. Go back to doing what you're doing."

The trio stepped out of the room, and the door closed in front of them. The two fleas kissed to resume their moment of passion.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Elisa questioned, doubtfully. As she said this, the trio tried using the third tunnel, which only brought them back to where they started.

"I'm not down here much," Dracula responded a little defensively, as they tried a fourth tunnel which brought them back where they started once again. "It's meant to be an exit if humans ever invaded."

"So we're, like, the first humans here, huh?" Johnny said aloud in amazement. "That's really cool."

As they walked down a fourth tunnel, the trio came up to another torch holder.

"Oh, boy," Dracula looked at it unsure. "I think this is it."

He pulled the torch holder down, only to have the wall reveal the same female skeleton Johnny had met earlier taking a shower. She shrieked when she realized this invasion of her privacy and tried to cover herself with the wash sponge.

"AHHH! What's happening?" she cried, fearfully.

Elisa quickly covered Johnny's eyes to spare the skeleton woman any dignity, while Dracula stuttered, "I'm terribly sorry, my mistake."

Pulling back the shower curtain, the skeleton woman's skeleton husband was outraged at these peeping toms. "What is _wrong_ with you people?!"

Then he threw the wash sponge into Dracula's face as the walls closed again before the situation got any worse.

A little later, they all walked down another tunnel which made them crouch down uncomfortably as they walked closely together.

Johnny was still excited about their adventure in the underground tunnels as he said aloud, "Oh man, this place is _amazing."_

"As long you don't count walking in on honeymooning fleas or skeletons in the shower," Elisa chuckled, teasing the vampire.

"Okay, I could _really_ use some silence right now," Dracula groaned.

The tunnel ended and the space widened to allow all three of them to stand straight again. They made their way down a long staircase which seemed to go on forever into the darkness.

Dracula stopped short of the end of the stairs when they ended at a dark bottomless abyss, but Johnny didn't really notice as he kept walking and nearly stepped off of the edge of the last step, yet Dracula grabbed the scruff of Johnny's jacket, causing the younger man to yelp as he was pulled back.

Elisa came too close to edge of the last step, and as Johnny was pulled back up she suddenly lost her balance and nearly felt herself starting to fall. She cried out in fear, but she felt a strong hand grab her own and quickly pull her back to safety. Elisa found herself staring into Dracula's alluring blue eyes while he held her with one arm around her waist and she held him around his neck. His eyes and his skin glowed magnificently in the fiery torch light, and they found themselves starting to smile at each other.

Suddenly remembering Johnny was in their presence and he had been watching with great interest, they awkwardly let go of each other and Dracula started leading them back up the stairs, his awkward smile resumed back to his usual frown.

Once again the trio walked down another tunnel. But at last they came to another torch holder and Dracula pulled it down as he said, "Alright, third time's the..."

The wall opened to reveal a room that looked like a lounge or a bar of some kind with strange science equipment from a clichéd mad science lab, and in the room was a chaotic battle between Frank, Wayne, Murray, and a bunch of werewolf pups all beating up three zombies. Murray was currently sitting on one zombie, Wayne gnawed on the second zombie, and Frank was smashing the third zombie on the bar. These three zombies were revealed to be great composers in history; Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven.

"Not exactly third time's the charm, right?" Elisa muttered.

While Elisa and Johnny gawked at the scene before them, Dracula panicked as he rapidly yanked down on the lever to closed the doors, but Frank had noticed his vampire friend and called out, "Drac!"

Dracula quickly pushed Elisa and Johnny out of view as he greeted with a sheepish smile, "Y-yes, Frankie."

"Hey, buddy," Frank asked. "What you been doing?"

"Don't move," Dracula told the two humans from the side of his mouth. "Never mind that!" He waved his long arms in dismissal and demanded, "What you been doing?"

"We wanted to practice our big number for Mavis' party and then these losers wouldn't get off the bandstand," Wayne answered, still gnawing zombie Beethoven in his jaws.

"Okay. Put down Zombie Mozart, Bach and Beethoven this instant!" Dracula ordered.

Reluctantly, the trio of monsters tossed, butted or spat out the zombies composers over to the vampire, and the wolf pups scampered off.

"Did you get to rehearse at all, Zombie Beethoven?" Dracula asked the zombie.

Zombie Beethoven shook his head and groaned in fifth symphony, "Eh, eh, eh, eeeeeeeeeeh."

"Listen, Drac, we wanted to play something like old times. We even thought maybe you'd sing with us," Wayne suggested.

"Ah, heh, heh…" Dracula chuckled nervously. "C'mon fellas, you know that I haven't sung in public since…Martha."

"Yeah, but, we just thought how much, you know, Mavis would love it," Frank added.

"I SAID NO!" Dracula shouted and then released a blood curdling roar, "RAAAAAAAAAWWW!" before his face returned to normal. "DON'T ASK ME AGAIN!" Then he spoke more pleasantly, "Okay, now let's hug the zombies, let's all make up."

The vampire's roars had thrown his friends off-track and terrified.

"Wow. He really scared you." Wayne looked up at Frank with a teasing smile, and Murray glanced up at him with a grin.

"I wasn't scared. I was being polite, okay?" Frank tried to deny it.

As Elisa watched the conversation between the vampire and his friends, she was intrigued to overhear that Dracula could sing. "Dracula can sing? Wow. First, he comes off as attractive, and second, he can sing?" However, her face turned into curiosity. "But, who is this Martha?" She remembered how Eunice had at first mistook her for this Martha or even being a sister to this mysterious woman everybody knew. "If Dracula doesn't want to sing because of her, she must have been someone special to everyone, especially him." For a moment, Elisa was feeling slightly jealous. Becoming tired of waiting for Dracula to finish talking to his friends, she slowly made her way out of the tunnel to look around the comfortable lounge.

A moment later, Mavis appeared upside down in front of Johnny, which startled him by her sudden presence. "Hey, what're you doing here? I thought you were planning."

"I, uh...I had other things to take care of. Uh, I never caught your name," Johnny said, trying to make an excuse and change the subject.

"My name's Mavis," she replied.

Johnny lit up at hearing her name. "Mavis? That's a pretty neat name."

Mavis blushed as she smiled shyly. "Yeah, my mom picked it. So, are you gonna tell me your name?"

"Me? Oh, my name, good question." Johnny thought nervously for a moment to try to pick a name that doesn't give away his human nature, while he felt his hair for a moment he remembered his disguise and came up with a name. "Well obviously, I'm Frankenstein," he said as he leaned against the side of the wall.

"No, you're not," Mavis giggled. "Frankenstein is my uncle over there, the gentleman hugging zombie Mozart." Mavis pointed to the golem monster and Johnny looked over to see Frank with zombie Mozart in a painful headlock.

"Right, of course he's your uncle." Johnny tried to think of another identity for his disguise. "Well, um, you see I'm not _the_ Frankenstein. I'm his..." another idea clicked in his head, "...cousin, Johnny Stein."

"Johnny Stein?" Mavis cocked an eyebrow at this name.

"Hey Mavis," a little spider came down and greeted the young vampiress.

Startled by the talking spider, Johnny shrieked and stumbled out of the tunnel. He tripped over a table and crashed on top of it, destroying it.

This scene brought the attention of the other monsters, including Dracula and Elisa (who had been gazing at the ugly skeleton fish in the fish tank). She rushed over to his side to see what had happened to him.

Seeing these two strangers, Frank stomped forward, nearly shaking the room. At the same time, Dracula placed himself as a shield between them and the scowling golem monster.

"WHO ARE THEY?!" Frank demanded, pointing at the two strangers behind Dracula.

"Oh, are these monsters gonna kill us?" Johnny asked worriedly in a whisper.

"I hope not, they all seemed so nice in the beginning," said Elisa.

"Not as long as they think you are monsters," Dracula whispered to them.

"Huh? That's kind of racist," Johnny looked appalled by that answer.

"We'll talk later," Dracula replied.

Elisa warily came out from behind Dracula and was just about to say hello, but Johnny started groaning and grunting in imitation of the Frankenstein movie monster with his arms straight out and walking stiffly. Dracula looked worried while Elisa face palmed in embarrassment.

"Is he making fun of me?" Frank asked offended.

"No, no, of course not, because he's...uh," Dracula tried to reassure Frank while he tried to get Johnny to stop what he was doing and explain the appearance of two new monsters.

"He's your cousin," Mavis said as she appeared, sitting on the bar table, "Johnny Stein."

Dracula was a little surprised by this false story Mavis had revealed, but he decided to play along as it sounded like a good cover story. "Yes, yes, yes," he said with a smile as he patted Johnny's shoulder.

"I don't have no cousin." Frank was a bit skeptical, not sure whether he had a cousin or not.

"No, no, you do," Dracula tried to prove it. "He's your sixth cousin, three times removed."

"On your right arm's side," Johnny went along as he pointed to his own right arm.

"You have a cousin?" Frank looked his right arm curiously.

"Frank, if your arm could talk," Dracula began to explain, "He'd tell you that the original owner had a brother..."

"...who married a woman..." Johnny went on.

"...who was hanged..." Dracula made a gagging noise as he made the head slicing gesture across his throat.

"...for strangling a pig," Johnny finished.

"Pig strangling?" Elisa cocked an eyebrow of disbelief at this weird backstory.

"I have pig-strangling blood in my arm!" Frank shouted in shock, but then he grinned excitedly. "That's kind of cool. Well, cuz, great to meet you."

The gentle giant golem shook Johnny's arm in a powerful hand shake. He made the young boy bounce up and down in a comical almost cartoonish way, causing Mavis to giggle.

"And who's she?" Wayne asked, his gaze focused on Elisa. "That can't be Martha. She wasn't a witch."

"Whoa, the resemblance is unbelievable!" Murray gasped in awe, and possibly in love since he thought of himself as a ladies man.

"Yeah!" Frank agreed, whose mouth was so wide open that his own wife would have been jealous of his gawking.

"No, this is not Martha," Dracula grew disgusted at how everyone thought this human girl was his late wife when she's nothing like Martha. "This is, um..."

"Hello, everyone," Elisa greeted politely as she held out her hand to shake their hands, or paws. "My name's Elisa. Some people call me Ellie, but it doesn't matter."

"Enchante Mademoiselle," said a seemingly disembodied voice. A blushing Elisa felt an invisible hand take hers and unseen lips kissed her hand beneath a pair of floating glasses. A look of burning jealousy appeared on Dracula's face as the voice teased, "Is this your new girlfriend, Drac? She's a real looker."

"Wah! What was that?!" asked a startled Johnny, leaning against the imposing Frank.

"Oh, sorry, I should really clear my throat before I speak," Griffin, the Invisible Man, said as he released Elisa's hand. No longer afraid, Johnny looked at him in amazement. "So anyway, what brings you two here?"

"Oh, uh, party planner," Johnny said, regaining Dracula's earlier cover story.

"Yes, I have recruited Mr. uh, Stein here to help me with Mavis' birthday party," Dracula said with a smile as he pointed to Mavis behind him, and then placed an arm over Elisa's shoulders and brought her closer to his side. "And I recruited Miss Elisa to, uh, be my new assistant manager while I help Mr. Stein plan the party."

"Wait a minute. _You_ asked someone to help _you?"_ Murray questioned, sounding a bit alarmed by this.

"Captain Control Freak?" Wayne asked, credulous at the vampire's idea.

"It's 'Count,'" Dracula corrected the werewolf on his given title. "And yes, with so much planning needed for the party I needed assistance," he explained while he straightened out his high collar. "And I thought having a Mavis contemporary would be useful."

"Yeah," Johnny said excitedly, "He _totally_ needed a fresher perspective." His words made Dracula glare at him.

"I guess even the most _stubborn_ people need a little help," Elisa teased with a smile, causing Dracula to glare at her.

Wayne smiled. "Okay, guys. Mr. Tight Coffin over here wanted to have these powdered lameos play at the party." He gestured to Dracula first (whose expression remained stone-faced), then he gestured to the three zombie composers, all moaning sadly.

"So anyway, we thought we could liven things up a bit," Frank explained as he held the three of them together and flashed hopeful, toothy, innocent smiles.

"Whoa! You all play?" Johnny gasped excitedly. "Let's check you guys out!"

The group went up on stage and took their places; Griffin was at the drums, Wayne was at the electric piano, Frankenstein and Murray both had bass guitars and microphones. A slow tempo beat began to play.

 _"Girl..."_ Frank started to sing, _"I can't believe it's your big night."_

In front of the stage, Dracula, Elisa, Johnny and Mavis all shared looks of utter speechlessness.

 _"Seems like only yesterday, you were eating mosquitoes,"_ Murray joined in.

 _"But now you're eating frogs and mice,"_ Wayne and Griffin sang together.

 _"Scoffing them down like Doritos,"_ Frank continued.

 _"Tell me, where did the time go, girl..."_ They all sang together.

However, their music didn't liven up the scene. Everyone in the lounge seemed bored with the music as they played, almost ready to fall asleep to such soft music like a child's lullaby.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on, guys, stop," Johnny spoke up, waving his hands and got everyone's attention as the Drac Pack stopped their music. "That's cute, but kind of old school."

"Yes, thank you, Johnny," Dracula agreed in a glad, almost smug, smile.

The zombie composers looked out from behind the vampire in hopes for a chance to play from behind him.

"You gotta totally tempo things up," Johnny continued.

Dracula suddenly looked deeply confused, and so did the baffled zombie composers.

"Here, we'll show you," Johnny said as he grabbed Elisa's arm and dragged her on stage with him, and then he grabbed Murray's guitar.

"No, wait! I haven't sung on stage in a long time," Elisa objected.

"Just roll with it," Johnny said encouragingly, and then turned to Wayne. "Werewolf Man, give me a jam!"

As soon as the confused Wayne's paws touched the piano keys, Johnny counted to a hard rock jam.

 _"Two, three, four! Vampire girl with the fangie fangs, hair real cute with the bangie bangs!"_

Blushing, Mavis watched in admiration. She brushed a strand of hair away behind her ear. This strange new tune caught the attention of all the monsters in the lounge so they gathered around the stage with amazement.

 _"Little princess gonna be a queen, legal bat lady turning 118!"_ Johnny imitated a guitar solo before he shouted with the crowd.

"118!"

"Yeah! Hit it, Ellie!" Johnny shouted as he continued to jam on the electric guitar and she was tossed a microphone, and Elisa began to sing with exhilarated passion.

 _"Oh, yeah! Tonight, it's your big night! Flying to the moon till you're out of sight!"_

The whole time, Dracula had a look of utter shock on his face while Elisa and Johnny rocked the stage, clearly never expecting anything like this and wondering what on earth was going on as these humans were causing such chaos in his well-ordered world. However, the second Elisa sang with such passion, that look of shock became something like fascination when he heard her voice. It felt like it called to him, like the call of a siren luring him to her.

 _"It's gonna be the best night you've ever seen cause tonight, girl, you're turning 118!"_

 _"She's 118!"_ Johnny sang.

"118!" The crowd chanted.

Getting overly excited, Johnny yelled, "Yeah! Stage dive!"

And he leaped over the crowd when the guitar was passed back to Murray, who enthusiastically continued playing the jam, while Johnny jumped into the crowd expecting to be caught. Instead the crowd parted and he crashed face first to the floor. Clearly the monsters did not understand what they were supposed to do.

Having nearly lost her balance when caught up in the moment, Elisa would have fallen off stage if Murray had not caught her, and he looked like he enjoyed it.

Johnny sat up with a goofy smile and simply remarked, "Awesome."

"I am so blown away right now!" Mavis said impressed and excited when she came up to Johnny and Elisa had been shoved to the center with him.

"I think my cuz and this chick," Frank said as he stomped up to them and picked up both Elisa and Johnny up by the scruff of his jacket and her dress, "is gonna make this the BEST. PARTY. EVER!"

Johnny shrank a little by Franks' big voice, and so did Elisa whilst she leaned back a little, but Mavis patted her shoulder, giving her a friendly smile.

"Yeah! Maybe they find a way to get me some chicks around here," Murray suggested with a big smile.

"We should have a dance competition," someone in the crowd suggested.

Almost every monster started talking at once for fun party activities for Elisa and Johnny to plan.

But a sudden gust of wind blew through the lounge when Dracula suddenly levitated over everyone, his cape billowing behind him as he shouted, "We're not doing any of that! We've got to stay on schedule, alright?"

"Alright, Dad, alright," Mavis moaned. "Johnny, Ellie, you're coming, too, right?" she asked as she smiled and touched Johnny's shoulder.

"I don't know, is it cool with Dracula? Gotta be sure he's cool with it," Johnny said nervously.

"Sure he'll be cool with it," Hank shrugged his shoulders.

"We can find room in the schedule for some more activities," Elisa added. "Something new, something you have never done at the hotel before."

Though nobody challenged the vampire, everyone thought Elisa's idea sounded better, so the crowd eagerly voiced their favor in her plan.

This made Dracula glare daggers at her for even daring to suggest such a thing. He landed back on the ground, took Elisa aside by gripping her arm a little too tightly, and whispered with a hard edge to his voice, "What do you think you're doing? I won't have humans disrupting my schedule for my daughter's party!"

"We're just trying to make things more fun around here," Elisa explained, calmly. "It seems to me your guests could use some new experiences."

"We don't need new experiences!" Dracula refused angrily. "As I said, we need to stay on schedule because I have worked too hard to make this hotel a perfect sanctuary, and that requires a lot of order. And you forget you're not really my 'assistant manager,' you're just a human intruding in my hotel."

Elisa scowled, she was getting tired of his overbearing need for constant control of everything. This felt like her father all over again. Having enough, she told him off, "You know, the stories I heard say Count Dracula is a cruel, terrifying ruler of the night or something, but from what I see is Count Jerkula who doesn't know fun if it bit him in the butt!"

Her words made Dracula extremely tense. He began leaning in very closely to Elisa's face, scowling at her with red glowing eyes, frightening her into backing away. Her back bumped into the bar and he slammed both of his arms on either side of her to keep her from going anywhere. Nobody, none the wiser, overheard them.

"Listen to me," he hissed quietly in insulted fury, "I don't care what the humans' stories say about me. You are in _my_ hotel and _my_ word is law here, and I say we stay on schedule. So, you and your little friend keep it down until you both leave this place and never return!" He eyed her neck with malicious interest and the vampire stroked it. "Or I shall take these teeth and sink them into your throat, and drain every drop of blood from your body until you're no longer alive! Do you understand?!"

Staring up into his menacingly gleaming eyes, Elisa timidly nodded her head in fear of him, but the threat of feeling his fangs in her throat was the worst. She felt intimidated by his touching her neck.

Dracula squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breathe to calm down. Then he leaned his head over her shoulder to whisper in her ear, "And for your information…I invented fun." He breathed on her neck, sending an frightened chill down her spine.

The Count then turned his back on Elisa while he announced the next fun activity and everyone should go the library to begin the game. Elisa stood with her back to the bar for a few moments longer before joining her friends in the gathered crowd.


	9. Activities, Laundry and Bonding

Everyone had made their way to the library for the next fun activity, one of Dracula's favorite games: Bingo.

After the Activities Director, a very old gremlin lady, finished turning a cage full of rodent skulls she randomly picked one and it whispered into her ear the number, "N-27."

"N-27," she said slowly in a quiet voice, and then stamped the number on her own card.

Around the room various faint thumps could be heard of less enthusiastic players stamping their own cards. Dracula stamped his own card with enthusiasm while Elisa sat next to him. She didn't find the number on her card but she glared daggers at him that might have made the vampire proud had he been paying attention. On another side of the table, Mavis stamped her card in pure boredom while Johnny sat next to her and was about to doze off but then woke with a faint cry of 'huh!'

"G-61," another rodent skull whispered into the Activities Director's ear.

"G-61," she said the number slowly into her microphone.

At the other table with several Bingo cards in front of her, Eunice, probably the only other person enjoying the game, stamped on her card as she found the number and realized she had a Bingo.

"Bingo! Bingo!" she shouted excitedly, when suddenly her card was gobbled up by another old gremlin lady with her blue hair in a bun, beside her. "How dare you!" Eunice said angrily. "Do you what doctor made me?!"

"I didn't do that," the elderly gremlin lady smiled and rolled her eyes.

The next activity took place in a large auditorium where the monster guests gathered for a game of Charades, and again almost everyone seemed less than enthused in the game.

One group tried to guess what the Fly, who was also the fitness instructor, was doing.

"Circles."

"The Fly?"

"Hands?"

"Film?"

The Fly vomited on his hands and rubbed them together.

"Vomit."

"The vomit?"

"The throw-up."

"No, that wasn't a clue," the Fly said and stopped what he was doing.

Pretty much everyone who was watching mostly dozed off, save for Dracula who looked positively giddy as he watched the contest unfold. Elisa, however, as well as Mavis next to her and Johnny on the other side of Dracula, looked bored out of their minds. Elisa shot another death glare toward the infamous vampire.

The next group was the Hydra Heads trying to guess Griffin's clues which mostly looked like a pair of floating glasses moving rapidly.

"Nothing?"

"Emptiness."

"Glasses?"

"Glasses shaking?"

"Oh, glasses shaking sideways."

"Through the looking glass."

The Invisible Man gave up. "Uhh, I stink at this."

Johnny sighed, but he perked up when he suddenly got an idea. He quickly dug through his backpack, which for some reason Dracula allowed the young man to bring with him, and with a flick of his wrist opened what appeared to be a scooter.

He began riding his scooter out in the large open auditorium floor between the two groups of charade players as they looked on in thrilled fascination, not even minding he had interrupted their games. In the background the song 'I'm Sexy and I Know It' played along with Johnny and his tricks on his scooter such as spinning in one spot.

The monster guests watched with excitement and fascination, eagerly receiving a turn to try out the scooter. First, Murray had a turn, laughing as he rode it. Then there came what appeared to be a relative of the Hand Thing. Next came the werewolf pups with their little sister, Winnie, chasing them. Wendy glided calmly along on the scooter while giggling. A giant Yeti got one foot on it and he fell onto the stands with a huge crash, and right on top of a zombie waiter, but it made a small yeti and a Gillman applaud.

Mavis laughed with delight, but Dracula could only gasp in shock at what was taking place. Once again, this human was causing more chaos in his perfect, well-ordered world.

Finally, Elisa got her turn on the scooter to show off her own skills. It had been a long time since she rode one as a kid, but it was like riding a bicycle, so to speak. She rode the scooter at a fast pace and jumped from side to side on it, then rapidly turned it around and did a quick wheelie.

Mavis ran down to the floor, shouting excitedly, "That looks like fun! I want the next turn!"

"Mavis, no!" Dracula fearfully tried to stop his daughter. "You could get hurt!"

Dracula tried to chase after Mavis, but Frank interrupted him. "C'mon, Drac, there's nothing dangerous about…WHOOPS!"

Frank suddenly tripped over his own oversized feet. As his large arms flailed about, he turned around with his back to Dracula, who let out a brief scream, and fell right on top of the vampire, creating a loud bodily thump that echoed throughout the auditorium. Hank flinched at the vampire's sudden embarrassing predicament.

As Frank got right back up on his feet, he said, "Oh, sorry buddy. Drac? Where are you?"

He looked around himself to find his friend, but didn't find Dracula anywhere around his body. He noticed Hank was staring at him as he heard an annoyed groan. Frank turned his detachable head around and saw Dracula stuck to his large back. Dracula pulled himself off from Frank's large back with a sticky elastic sound to then shoot the golem a hard heated stare that might have set Frank on fire, his worst fear.

Elisa was having so much fun she didn't watch where she was going, until she rammed right into Bigfoot's giant foot too late and went flying through the air. Dracula had seen this, and instincts took over as he swiftly moved to catch her. The next moment he found her on top of him flat on the floor again.

The scooter rolled off in a random direction right to the elderly gremlin lady. The next instant, she opened her mouth and gobbled up the scooter in one chomp.

"I didn't do that," was her usual response.

The crowd voiced their disappointment in a loud groan while Johnny stared at the old gremlin lady in shock.

"Sorry about your scooter," Mavis tried to sympathize with her new friend.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I'll get a new one." Johnny shook his head casually as he put his hands into his pockets.

Mavis giggled, smiling at Johnny's ever easy going nature.

Seeing this from across the room Dracula glared at Johnny with hostility, but then remembered he had Elisa on top of him, which for some reason he really liked as she stared helplessly in awe in his face and how close they were. Again, their eyes locked and everything froze, save for just seeing each other. Through the material of Dracula's clothing, Elisa could feel his heart starting to beat faster while she felt her own starting pounding quicker in her chest.

Mavis, whom had flinched when she watched Elisa crash into her father and lay on top of him, for some strange reason, noticed they didn't get up immediately from the impact. She was the only one watching while Dracula and this new assistant manager of his just laid there for long moments, staring into each other eyes as though mesmerized by each other's gazes.

The young vampiress found it odd the way her dad acted around this new female vampire, the way he looked at her or how he reacted almost jealously when Griffin looked at her. She started to think, if her dad really liked this Elisa person, should she try to encourage her dad to start courting Elisa as it was obvious how he felt about her, or should she try to dissuade her father from courting Elisa remembering the story of her parents' zing and Elisa didn't seem to like her dad very much. Mavis felt torn. On one part, she actually found she didn't mind since Elisa was the nicest and kindest witch she had ever met, but on the other part the old zing saying started beating in her brain like a hammer.

Seconds stretched on into forever, until Dracula remembered they were being watched. He and Elisa struggled to get up, both blushed in embarrassment as Elisa stammered, "I-I'm s-sorry."

"Alright, enough!" Dracula bellowed, loud enough for everyone to stop what they were doing. Realizing they were being watched, Dracula smoothed himself out calmly so not to alarm anyone else. "Okie-dokie, it's time for the pool party!" he announced.

Everyone immediately filed out of the gym to get changed and get ready. Johnny and Elisa were about to follow the crowd, until Dracula zoomed over to block their path.

"Not for you two!" he sneered at them with seething anger, clearly having had enough humiliation. "I've had enough with the rolling and the spinning and the slipping to make giant holes in the walls with that...that...thing of yours," he growled. "We have an important schedule of events to stick to and there'll be no more interruptions! As for you..."

His scowl at Johnny made the young boy freeze in place of total fear at what the vampire might do to him, but Elisa stood by his side ready to shield Johnny if Dracula even dared to hurt her young friend by sticking to his promise of drinking her blood or his.

"There will be no more of your mischief! For two hours, you two will be put on laundry duty!"

"Laundry?" Elisa gawked at the vampire. "Who do you think we are, slaves?"

"Well, it can't be that bad," Johnny said optimistically.

* * *

"Yep, this is definitely bad," Johnny sighed, as he hung another white sheet on the close line yet he looked totally bored out of his mind.

Elisa didn't know which potion bottle to use for washing or de-odorize the sheets. Even though she was disguised as a witch, the other witch maids expected her to know how to use magic spells. She tried dunking a pink bottle's contents in the cauldron thinking it was shampoo, but there came a small explosion and she had to duck for cover, and as for the bed sheet in the cauldron it had been burned accidently when she pulled it out with tweezers.

"This is all Dracula's fault!" she scoffed. "He's doing this to keep us out of the party, and I have no clue how to work with potions!"

"This is so unfair, man!" Johnny pouted in agreement.

The door parted open and there stood Hank, Pedro and Wendy. Their visit took Elisa and Johnny by surprise.

"What are you kids doing here?" Elisa asked.

"We're here to rescue you from the terrors of laundry duty!" declared Pedro.

"Hurry up, while the coast is still clear!" Hank said, looking behind to make sure the Count was no where in sight.

"Thanks! You guys rock!" Johnny smirked at the three monsters, deeply grateful for their rescue.

"We appreciate this, but what will your parents say?" Elisa said worriedly.

"They just wanted to have a wonderful chat with Uncle Drac," Wendy said naively while grinning.

Tiptoeing down a corridor to the lobby, the group stopped when they caught Dracula in an argument with his daughter and his friends.

"You can't ban them from the party, Drac!" Frank snapped. "We like Johnny and Ellie! They got the best party ideas we never got in years!"

"Look guys, they were impulsively disrupting my schedule!" Dracula defended. "I don't know where that roller thing came from, but it could've killed someone!"

"Ah c'mon, Drac," groaned Griffin. "Nobody was really into charades anyway, and I really stink at it."

"Even my own kids thought it was fun, and it got them off my back for once," added Wayne.

"Nobody got hurt," Murray agreed. "And it was fun, you should've tried it. I've never done anything like that before, and if Johnny's your party planner he must know how to bring some real excitement to parties. Not to mention, Ellie's got some groove that could make you interested."

"Yeah, Dad," Mavis spoke up trying to help her foster uncles. "What's wrong with Johnny planning something special for the party? Shouldn't I decide what I want for the party or not since it's _my_ birthday? We've done the same things for my birthday for the last one hundred and thirteen years."

"Sorry, Sweet Fang, you're too young to understand the time it takes in planning and organizing grand celebrations," Dracula said sweetly before he got strict with her. "And the ways we have celebrated your birthday have been long standing traditions, we don't need anything new. And second, I don't want you ordering your friends to snoop around and find them." He arched an eyebrow as he frowned at her unamused. "You weren't trying to sneak them out of laundry duty, are you?"

"Guilty as charged," Hank admitted in defeat, exposing himself and the others from their hideout. "We weren't doing anything wrong."

"We know you weren't, kids," Frank assured his son and the others, while he glared death daggers at the vampire who wasn't the least bit frightened. "It wouldn't be fun without them."

Dracula felt his blood rising, ready to explode at his own friends who have been turned against him. But he had to remain calm and he took a deep breath to relax his nerves. "Alright!" he huffed with a scowl on his face. "But from this moment forward, I am the one who will be in control of the partying until tomorrow!"

"Rraaggh!" Mavis grew frustrated at her father. "For once why can't you let me do something different at my party! Even if I can never leave the hotel, I could at least get to do something special on my birthday without having you to ruin everything!"

She left the lobby in a flash after changing into a bat, leaving everyone staring at where she was or at Dracula, who continued to stare off in the direction his daughter had fled. Hank, Pedro and Wendy looked worried for their friends. Griffin, Murray, Frank and Wayne scowled disappointedly at the vampire.

Swatting her witch's hat in his face, Elisa shot Dracula a hard look saying, "You're a horrible father!" before she followed after Mavis in concern.

* * *

"Mavis?" Elisa called to the young vampiress, startling her and finding her in another amazing part of the hotel.

While there were signs of abandonment from long ago as parts of the walls lay in ruin and looked like they weren't done being built, all around were an assortment of beautiful flowers and exotic looking plants while in a broken turret an archway held a swing set. The water of the little fish pond glistened in the moon's light beyond the swing set. The place had to be the most beautiful part of the hotel she had ever seen, and it took Elisa's breath away.

"What is this place?" she asked. "It's so peaceful here."

"Thanks," Mavis smiled as she sat on the swing. "It's my secret garden I cultivated over the years. I always come here when I need to get away from my dad. I love my dad, but he can be a little controlling. This isn't fair! I don't want to do bingo or charades or whatever Dad has planned for me!"

"A little, huh?" Elisa snorted amusingly, before she came a little further into the hidden garden, and leaned against a pillar as she sighed deeply. "Mavis, I know what you're going through. Long before I came here, I was like you once. I know what it's like to have a father who's overprotective. He tries to make every decision for me and what I'm supposed to do with my life, since I was always the headstrong and rebellious child."

"That's exactly how I feel about my dad," Mavis said, listening to this witch's backstory deeply interest and gently swayed the swing slightly. "He still views me as a child, and still treats me like one, even though I'm 118 now. He knew I wanted to see new things outside the hotel, and he at least trusted me enough to let me see a human village, like he promised thirty years ago. I think it was the same one I saw from my swing, and it was so much better to see in person. But then, a mob of humans showed up and attacked me with torches and pitchforks. I tried to tell them I was friendly, but they still threatened me, even when they set themselves on fire. It was just like dad said; the humans hate us. I decided that I'll never leave the hotel ever again."

Elisa raised an eyebrow at this. "How did they threaten you?"

"The usual," Mavis replied. "Burn my clothes...bite my toes...and take my candy."

Elisa tried to hide a laugh at the bad rhyming, yet she stopped after realizing that humans don't do those kinds of things to vampires and noticed Mavis staring at her when she didn't find it funny at all. "Whoever told you something so ridiculous as that?"

"My dad told me stories about how awful humans are since I was a little girl," Mavis replied in sad agreement. "And you have to admit he was right. It's the reason my dad built this hotel. Didn't your dad tell you the same stories?"

A few small apple trees and vines with more beautiful flowers nearby where Mavis picked the flowers and so to make a crown of flowers to keep herself amused. She even bought two apples for them to share for a quick snack.

Elisa scowled in disgust when she understood Dracula was the main reason she got this silly idea of what humans do to vampires. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to answer, then she answered, "Uh, yes. He did tell me scary human tales when I was a kid, but it was just to scare me into staying home and I hate being cooped up in the house."

The brunette witch looked at the young vampire with sympathy while she made her crown of flowers, and felt determined to help her with encouragement, like her own mother used to do with her when she needed it. "Mavis, it was your first time in the outside world. It was just one human village. Just because you had a bad time in the village doesn't mean you should never give up on your dream, because it has so much to offer. You can't let one incident convince you to lock yourself up at home. Maybe you can visit another village where humans are more open to accepting monsters and there are no angry mobs. Even if your dad still won't let you go, you need to stand up to him and convince him that you're old enough to make your own decisions. He can't keep you on a tight leash for the rest of your undead life. It's one of the reasons why I disobey my father often because I never let his grip tighten around me and I'm my own person. And you need to know one thing since I've been around humans all my life; not all humans are awful."

Mavis looked skeptical about that, but the certainty in Elisa's eyes started to register in her brain and she began to think deeply about what she had been told.

"Besides, you might get that chance to meet somebody your age." Elisa continued in a playful, teasing voice. "I mean, Johnny's a nice boy, and maybe you and he…"

The young vampiress turned away to hide her ivory face, now turning a shade of pink. "Oh? What about you and Dad? The two of you, back at the auditorium…" Mavis began to tease her back, but she looked half serious.

"WHAT?!" Elisa's cheeks turned a bright pink color just like Mavis. "Dracula is not my type! Why would I care about that jerk?"

Mavis chuckled amusingly to see Elisa get flustered when she talked about her father, but she wanted to know the truth. "Seriously, is there something going on between you and my dad?"

"No, no! Nothing is going on! Your dad is a control freak!" Elisa denied, waving her hands in denial. "Does it bother you?" In her situation, she knew how kids felt disappointed at a parent for dating someone other than a deceased spouse and someone whom the kids dislike a lot.

"No, it's just..." Mavis paused, considering what was going on. "I guess I never thought about him with anyone besides my mom. But Auntie Wanda told me that a zing only happens once in your life."

"You know about a zing? It's real!" Elisa gasped in disbelief, and the young vampiress nodded. "I've heard that word a lot when I was a kid and I believed it was true, but everyone I knew assumes I'm talking nonsense." She decided to be honest for once. "When I met your father I... I did feel something when I looked into his eyes... and I think he felt the same way," she noticed Mavis looking concerned and wanted to assure her, "but perhaps there is a chance of zinging for a second time. Maybe your father is lonely and wants to be happy again, right?" Mavis nodded. "Maybe he needs someone to look after him and you. Not that I'm saying I love him after the way he treated me..." she hesitated, "but I don't know what to believe." Elisa decided to change the subject. "So, do you want to give the world a second chance? It's never too late for a second chance."

"I'll think about it," Mavis replied, making a large grin spread up to Elisa's beautiful green eyes.

Mavis spent the next few minutes on the swing. Elisa politely turned down her ride because the height of the swing still made her feel frightened so she kept herself amused by finishing the crown of flowers. Mavis, on her part, was feeling enthusiastic to find solace in someone who can relate to her. In fact, both females felt completely at peace to have found companionship in someone who they can relate to. She felt the wind in her face as she swung higher than ever almost as if touching the moon.

In the distance, they heard a familiar male Romanian voice calling out for them.

"It's Dad!" Mavis almost panicked when she heard his voice. "Please don't tell him about this place!"

"Your secret is safe with me," Elisa replied calmly as they ran in the direction Dracula called them from.

As they walked at a quick pace, Elisa asked, "So what's this next boring activity on your Dad's 'fun' schedule?"

Mavis chuckled before she said, "Pool aerobics." Suddenly, Mavis paused, realizing that Elisa was becoming the mother she never knew and longed for all her immortal life. "Hey, Ellie?" she stopped the young witch before she made a turn in the corner. "Thank you," she said smiling, as she watched this fascinating witch leading her to the pool.


	10. Pool Party

Outside the back of the castle, the monsters were enjoying their time around the pool. Tiki lamps were burning around the area and a buffet table filled with strange foods for the guests were being served by zombie waiters or gargoyle chefs.

An aerobics class was in session with the Fly as the instructor, one of the attendees was Wanda. "And pull up, and twist, and bend, and back, and push," the Fly instructed, until he barfed on his hands and rubbed them together, an impulse he couldn't help doing. The students attempted to copy his movements, gagging, hacking, or sticking a skeleton finger down their throats to try and barf up. "No, don't copy that," he ordered, still in a drone voice.

Meanwhile at the buffet, Elisa made her way down the stairs to the pool area after having changed in a beautiful black Hawaiian dress with pink and white flower patterns on it and a single strap over her right shoulder. She was the last to arrive at the pool, looking at her surroundings in amazement. Although she felt disgusted by the sight of the food she noticed. A Gillman stuck his tongue out to eat something off a plate served by a zombie.

Frank approached the buffet table to take his order. "Let me get a bubonic moose nose omelet with coach roach paste and mouse jelly. Oh! And with egg whites."

When Dracula had spotted Elisa move away from the buffet table, his eyes widened at how beautiful she looked in Martha's old dress, completely mesmerized and speechless by the sight of her.

Elisa noticed him approach her and became nervous. "Oh! Uh, hi again. Uh, Mavis asked me to wear her mother's old dress for the pool party. I hope you don't mind."

"No, no. It's alright," Dracula stuttered as he looked away to compose himself, "You look lovely." This was truly an honest answer.

Elisa began to blush a rosy pink. "Thank you."

"Where were you and Mavy, anyway?" he interrogated, evidently still mad from earlier but there was a hint of concern. "I've been looking everywhere for the two of you."

Elisa hesitated for a moment to think of something to say, remembering her promise to keep Mavis's garden secret. Finally she spoke half the truth, "I found Mavis wandering around the hotel and we started talking, so we went for a walk to cool down."

Dracula was suspicious of this as he raised an eyebrow, but decided to overlook it for now as he was glad Mavis and Elisa were fine.

"And would you call telling Mavis scary stories about humans burning her clothes, biting her toes and taking her candy fun like a sick joke to you?" Elisa decided to interrogate him back. "Because I find it ridiculous! I've read bettering rhyming from Dr. Seuss books."

"Dr. who-se books?" Dracula replied, confused as his eyes widened at what Elisa just said.

"Never mind. My point is Mavis told me about her experience in the 'human village.' Remember, the same one where we met? She said she was threatened by humans who would do those things to her and they set themselves on fire. All Johnny and I saw were a bunch of burning zombies, no humans, because if there were I know people would panic at being burned alive, not acting like it was nothing. So explain that, O' Great Hotel Manager!"

Dracula looked terribly surprised by this, but it quickly passed when he had to throw suspicion off himself. "You must have missed the burning humans when they were chased away by my loyal employees, but that doesn't matter. What matters now is you don't do anything careless!"

"You shouldn't make up stories to dissuade your daughter from following her dreams! You're only confusing her!" snapped Elisa.

"Hey, Ellie!" Eunice shouted at a table with Johnny, Mavis, and Wayne, "Come sit with us."

"I'll see you later," Elisa said huffily to Dracula before she made her way to the table to join her new friends.

Dracula only remained where he stood as he watched her go. Hunched over and brooding, he watched the two humans chat with his daughter and his friends like a hawk, trying to listen in on what they were all talking about, just to make sure neither one of them didn't blow their cover. Ever since these two humans showed up, his own daughter had become attracted to Johnny and she had befriended Elisa. It disgusted him that these two humans were more popular than him; he had always been the one to bring the fun around the hotel. And now, this red-haired gorilla and green-eyed vixen had stolen his thunder. Everyone began to believe that he was trying to ruin everything that seemed dangerous and unsafe to his friends when it was truly those humans' fault. And to make matters worse, Mavis clung to them like crazy, always following them like a duckling. But, why did he feel so different around Elisa? Whenever she got so close to him, like back in the lobby and in the auditorium and right now, Dracula could feel his heart beating faster and an overwhelming urge to claim her for himself.

"Bonjour, Monsieur Dracula," Quasimodo greeted his master as he slunked over to the Count. "May I make you an omelet?"

Dracula quickly stood up straight and dignified the second Quasimodo came over. "No, no, no. I'm not hungry," he refused the chef's offer.

Quasimodo frowned in disappointment when the Count turned him down, but Esmeralda began sniffing the air and froze. She leapt onto Quasimodo's nose, squeaking in alarm.

"What? Esmeralda you smell it again?" Quasimodo asked loudly, catching Dracula on to what was happening and he fidgeted his hands, trembling worriedly.

"HUMANS!" Quasimodo shouted.

"I _am_ hungry!" Dracula suddenly interrupted, swatting the rat away and she went flying right into Eunice's hair, none the wiser.

"Oh, Johnny! You've been to the Taj Mahal?" Eunice asked, equally impressed as the others while she swapped a beetle away from her plate.

"C'mon," Murray said as he chowed down on a plate of beetles, "No monster's been to the Taj."

Mavis had been leaning in to listen to Johnny's traveling stories, smiling an excited and dreamy look on her pretty features, "Man, I wish I could go there."

"Me too," Wendy added. "I hear it's supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world...and one of the most romantic." She slyly winked at Mavis, nodding over to Johnny.

Alarmed of what idea his daughter's friends tried to put in his daughter's head and overhearing what Mavis just said, especially trying to get rid of the pesky chef, Dracula said to Quasimodo, "You know what? I'll take fifty omelets."

The vampire tossed the hunchback right into the arms of one of the gargoyle waiters, who got very nervous right before Quasimodo order him to make the omelets and started beating up on the poor stone gray creature as he tried to gather some eggs.

As silent as a shadow, Dracula peeked over either a chair or the table with his daughter and his friends while Mavis asked Johnny in confusion, "How did you deal with the mobs?"

"Yeah, it does get pretty crazy in the summer," Johnny casually shrugged, not knowing she meant angry mobs, while he explained, "but you know, you just gotta roll."

"He just rolls," Wayne smiled, looking impressed. "That's cool that he rolls."

Dracula scowled, before swiping a bagel from a passing yeti's plate and purposely came between Johnny and Mavis. "Yes, yes, cool." He then offered Mavis the bagel. "Look, love droppings. I brought you a bagel with your favorite, scream cheese."

The cheese spreading on the bagel leapt up with a tiny monster face, screaming in a high pitched tone.

Mavis accepted the snack gleefully, "Holy rabies! Thanks, Dad." She then offered the bagel to Johnny, much to Dracula's dismay. "Johnny, try some scream cheese, it's awesome."

Johnny stared at the screaming cheese, nervously uncertain, as he did his best to politely refuse the bagel. "Oh, cool. But I'm, uh, scream cheese intolerant. So...polite pass." He handed the bagel back to a slightly disappointed Mavis.

"Oh, okay," Mavis was slightly disappointed, but then she offered the bagel to Elisa. "Elisa, do you want some scream cheese? It's so good."

Elisa looked at the bagel nervously while the cheese spreading continued to scream at her, but she politely turned the offer down. "Uh, no thank you. I, uh, already had my breakfast. I have to, uh, watch my figure." She handed the bagel back to Mavis.

"Yes, of course you are," Dracula nodded, and scooted Johnny away from the table by the shoulders. "Johnny, can we party plan talk for a minute?"

Mavis watched them leave the table in confusion while she took a bite of her scream cheese bagel.

In another open corner of the pool area and a good distance away from the picnic, a glaring Dracula leaned over Johnny as he whispered accusingly, "What are you doing? If they find out you're humans, they'll go bat poop!"

Johnny shook his head, as he calmly whispered, "Relax, no one suspects anything. The only thing that looks weird is how much whispering you're doing."

Dracula's eyes grew wide in realization, as he glanced up to see that he and Johnny were in the middle of a crowd watching them with curiosity and confusion. The Count embarrassingly smiled as he shoved Johnny to another area, passing the same table where Elisa and his friends sat at, just in time to overheard Elisa say this to his friends and his daughter:

"Yeah, my father still tried to decide whom I should date, like this jerk who tried to ask me out back in high school said..."

Dracula placed a firm hold on Elisa's shoulder as he said in that same phony pleasant voice, "Ellie, Johnny and I need to talk to you about party planning." He forcibly dragged her away from the table.

Once they were safely unnoticed, Dracula hissed at the two humans in a harsh whisper, "Just wrap it up, both of you! You will say you are both going in the pool and act excited, and then Johnny, you will say you hurt your back while Ellie says she's ill and not feeling well, and you both have to leave!"

Elisa and Johnny frowned grudgingly, but the Count's glare was worse, so they both had no choice but to do what he ordered. While Elisa and Johnny unenthusiastically slouched towards the pool, Elisa came back to the table where her friends sat, she halted while she started pretending to feel slightly ill.

"Ohhh, I don't feel so good," she moaned. "I need to lie down."

"It's okay, babe!" A muscular yeti said, as he came up to her and wrapped his arm around her in a helpful, almost seductive, way. "I'll help you feel better."

Dracula had seen this and scowled dangerously at the yeti, strangely feeling more jealous than irritation at this sudden backfiring of his plan. His lower jaw clenched shut while his upper lip lifted in a snarl.

Johnny reached the edge of the pool and hollered in an unenthusiastic way, "Here come good times. Whoo!" He clapped his hands, then acted like he was going to jump in but then acted like he had thrown out his back, "Oh, dude! Oh, my back!"

Suddenly, a much small Gillman leapt out of nowhere and landed on Johnny's shoulders, shouting excitedly, "I'm on your back!"

"No, no!" Dracula called out to try to correct him as he waved his arms, "He said 'Oh, my back!'" as he pointed to his own.

But this turned into another misinterpretation as a pink cyclopsian monster looked over to Mavis and called out, "Get on my back!" as he put his swim goggle on his one eye.

"Let's do it!" Mavis smirked while she eagerly jumped on his robust back.

"Oh, yeah! Here we go!" Johnny yelled excitedly as he stepped into the pool, "Chicken Fight! Push 'em off!"

"CHICKEN FIGHT!" Everybody shouted, and just like that more monsters dove into the pool to participate in this new game called chicken fight. The only one not interested was Dracula, who stood scowling by the pool side.

During their little competition, Mavis challenged Johnny while she struggled to push the small Gillman off his shoulders, "I got you, Johnny. You're going down!"

"Oh yeah? We'll see, Mavy-Wavy!" Johnny taunted, using the nickname her father always uses for her.

Desperately wanting to get involved in the fun, Elisa began to unzip the dress she wore. Realizing what she was doing, Dracula became worried for her dignity or rather freaked out that he didn't want to see her nude as if she were about to unzip herself out of her dress and walk around the pool completely naked like it didn't matter. In a flash, Dracula was by her side and spread his cape around her figure in attempt to cover her body.

"Drac! What are you doing?" Elisa frowned at him.

"That's what I'm asking you. Keep your dress on!" he hissed in a whisper, his face beet red.

"I'm not naked if that's what your thinking," said Elisa, shoving him aside to remove her dress.

But instead of her appearing naked, Dracula realized Elisa was in a bathing suit that had been hidden underneath the dress. Her swimsuit was a blue two-piece with a single strap on the top piece going over her shoulder, showing off her beautiful slender form.

Dracula stared at her body for a long minute. He suddenly felt a bit warmer than usual. Momentarily, he couldn't breathe as he got very hot under the collar. The collar on his cape began to flap rapidly. A goofy smile crept on his lips when he couldn't take his eyes off her. She was so gorgeous.

"What's the matter? You've never seen a 21st century bikini before?" asked Elisa, a sly grin spread across her lips.

But all Dracula could say was, "Edupiteh šūla equpiteh." He started speaking gibberish.

However, Elisa took this the wrong way and believed he was making fun of her. "So you think I look ridiculous, huh?" She felt so irritated that she smacked him on the cheek.

The smack brought Dracula back to his senses as he shook his head, his cold demeanor returned and he hissed furiously, "What are you wearing? Or rather _not_ wearing. You're showing too much skin!"

Elisa rolled her eyes at Dracula. He sounded too much like her own father. "It's just my bikini," she told him, rather annoyingly.

"A what?" Dracula raised a puzzled eyebrow. "You're practically half naked!"

"No I'm not," she sighed.

The same yeti let out a very loud wolf whistle before hoisting her up onto his shoulders and jumping into the pool. This was followed by more louder wolf whistles by various other male monsters when they had caught sight of Elisa in her swimsuit. Elisa smiled slyly at showing off her figure, and amused at Dracula scorning at the other monsters with such jealousy. Elisa began to do the Chicken Fight with Wayne, who was upon Frank's back, and using his clumsiness against him with enough of her own leverage finally knocked him into the pool.

Everyone was having a blast at Chicken Fight, except for Dracula, who tried to get things under order as he yelled at the ruckus crowd, "Okay, calm down with the Fight Chickens! Everyone stop the rough-housing!"

But nobody listened to him or probably ignored him on purpose. Things continued to get wilder as more monsters dove in the pool or got involved in a game of Chicken Fight.

A giant octopus tentacle shot upward out of the pool water, hoisting Frank upward, creating a high dive.

Far below, Eunice shouted at her husband, "Frank, if you hurt yourself..."

"I got it, Honey," Frank called back to reassure his wife from the formidable height, "the Stein Boys are bred for this kind of thing." And then he leapt off, shouting, "GERONIMO!"

As Frank fell, everyone watched him continue to fall for a seemingly long time, until he hit the hard water's surface. His body parts came apart and drifted around the pool.

Meanwhile, Wayne saw a chance to play a trick on Griffin, who was talking to Blobby. With a mischievous chuckle, he pantsed Griffin's swim trunks and the Invisible Man shrieked like a girl.

"Kids, why'd you do that?" Wayne asked casually while he leaned against the lifeguard chair, his nearby pups, Blobby and anyone else nearby started laughing hysterically.

"Oh! Uh, I was just in the pool. The water's cold," Griffin chuckled in embarrassment as he pulled his trunks back up, and then ran off yelling, "Don't judge me!"

Elisa had been pushed off the yeti's shoulders during Chicken Fight, and the next thing she knew, she found herself rising into the air by the giant tentacle. It took a second for her to get her barrings, but when she looked down at how far up she was getting she became completely paralyzed with fear and began to hyperventilate.

Brief images of misty mountains and a dark bottomless abyss from which she hung from a craggy unforgiving cliff flashed in her mind. She heard somewhere in the distance the cries of a frightened little girl screaming for help, and she knew she was that little girl. The memory overwhelmed her too much, so she fainted and fell from the giant tentacle.

The crowd watched her fall in anticipation and awe, but Dracula had sensed something was wrong with Elisa. His protective instincts took over as he let out a small gasp. Leaping into the air heroically, Dracula caught the unconscious young woman in his arms and wrapped his black cape protectively around her body, landing with amazing graceful precision on the other side, ignoring the groans of disappointment from the crowd, obviously unaware something was wrong.

The Count gently cradled her in his arms as he waited for her to wake up, and gradually she began to stir and open her eyes. When she awoke at last, human and vampire stared into each other's eyes for a long time.

Elisa slid her arms around his neck as the shock passed. Finally she asked in a confused voice, "What happened?"

"That's what I want to know," Dracula said with a hint of concern in his voice. "You didn't exactly look like you jumped. You fainted. What happened?"

Elisa's eyes momentarily widened while she stood up and pulled away from Dracula's embrace as she stammered quickly, "Oh, uh...it was nothing, really. I guess it was the shock of being up so high. I'm fine, really."

Dracula raised an eyebrow at this excuse. Elisa continued smiling awkwardly as if nothing happened. Rolling his eyes, he decided enough was enough. "Alright, that's it. It's for your own good you both leave, right now!" he sharply told her, before going off to find Johnny in all the chaos.

Elisa humped in irritation, before a hand grabbed her ankle and yanked her into the pool. She emerged from the water's surface, startled at who would do that, until she came face-to-face with the smirking culprits; Mavis and Wendy. The young vampiress and the little blob monster started playfully splashing in her face, so Elisa began splashing back at them.

Dracula was fuming silently as he searched around the pool area for Johnny. It irked him that his peaceful party had become a wild house, instead of an orderly party. However, his anger turned to fear when he found Johnny, but he realized the blue makeup was slowly coming off of Johnny.

He whispered loudly through his teeth to get his attention, "Johnny! Your makeup. _Your makeup!_ Climb out now." Dracula reached out to grab Johnny's wrist until, "OH!"

Suddenly, Dracula had been pulled into the pool when Johnny was thrust up onto the shoulders of the pink cyclopsian creature, and disappeared beneath the green water. Mavis and Elisa had swam over the second it happened. Wanda looked briefly concerned while Murray chortled amusingly.

"Oh, man!" Johnny smiled humorously, "I guess the Count wanted to for a swim!"

"Maybe he wanted to cool off his hot head!" Elisa joked out loud.

This earned them a chorus of laughter from everyone at their jokes, but not beneath the water. Beneath the surface, Dracula silently fumed until he began to throw a fit while he screamed. The water drowned out his screams, which sounded muffled. He had enough. Swimming rapidly to the bottom of the pool, Dracula reached out to a cork buried in the pool floor and unplugged it, causing all of the water to drain.

At the same time, Johnny was put on the high dive octopus tentacle into the air and, hollering in contagious enthusiasm, leapt off to make a huge splash.

"Cannonball!" he shouted.

But no sooner he did this, the water had been drained out, leaving the bottom of the pool dried up, much to the surprise of the guests, mostly Mavis and Elisa, the Stein couple, and the wolf pups.

"Johnny, look out!" Hank shouted in alarm.

Johnny took notice of this by now, and began to scream and panic. The draining water revealed a perturbed and soaking Dracula, arms folding. He looked up to see the boy falling. He sighed, knowing full well he couldn't let the boy get hurt. So he pointed his finger at Johnny, using his powers to freeze him in place.

Then he walked away for a moment, his shoes created a clanking sound as he did. He came back later carrying Blobby and placed him in the right spot for the boy to land in safely. The vampire pointed his finger again, causing Johnny to unfreeze and fall into the blob's jello-like body.

Inside the blob, Johnny looked at the vampire and muffled while he gave him a thumbs up in thanks and that he was okay. But all Dracula did was frown in annoyance. He couldn't care less and knew this had to end right now.


	11. Conflicted Emotions

In a spooky fog covered graveyard located on the perimeters of the hotel grounds, Dracula was carrying Johnny by the scruff of his jacket and pulling Elisa by her wrist in a tight grip. It was after the chaos at the pool party that Dracula had quite enough. These two humans brought nothing but trouble ever since they walked through the hotel's revolving door.

"Oh, you two messed up, Baby. You messed up, big time!" Dracula fumed in irritation as he took them deep into the graveyard. "I told you to take it down. You'll ruin my hotel if they find out."

"US?!" Elisa retorted. "You're the one who has the nerve to ruin it for everybody?"

"Maybe you're just jealous that people are finally having fun at this place," Johnny retorted, looking just as angry as the two grownups with him.

"Oh, that? THAT was not fun!" Dracula declared as he set Johnny down on his feet and let go of Elisa's wrist. "Everyone running, jumping and swimming with no order." He did those actions in a rather exaggerated cartoonish comedic way as he said the words. "That was the opposite of fun!"

"Do you even know what fun is?" Johnny interrogated.

"I invented fun!" Dracula bellowed, insistently.

"Listen, things have changed over the centuries. You need to start opening up to new ideas..." Elisa argued back.

"I don't need to be open to your pathetic ideas," Dracula rudely interrupted her, stubbornly. "Things are perfect the way they are...until both of you showed up and ruined everything!"

Johnny turned away and folded his arms, grumbling, "Boy, the wrong people get to be immortal."

"You know what, Count? You remind me so much of my own father. You obviously don't respect or trust your own daughter!" Elisa accused the vampire.

Dracula scowled at their comments, but he suddenly froze Elisa in place with a wave of his hand. Elisa, still aware of what was going on, was frozen before she was able to challenge the vampire any further.

"Look at me," Dracula demanded to Johnny as he brought his attention to the boy. He covered half of his face with his cape in a sinister way and his eyes began to glow red. Then he began to speak in a hypnotic and soothing voice, "You will remember nothing of this encounter. You have no memory of this place or the monsters you met. Now take your friend with you, go away and never return."

Johnny seemed to be momentarily hypnotized by the vampire, but an instant later he snapped out of it, asking, "Wait. Never return to the hotel?"

"What?" Dracula gasped, shockingly confused to why his powers didn't work. "You were supposed to forget the hotel. I just used my powers to erase your memory. I looked straight into your eyes." He pointed at Johnny between the eyes.

"Huh," Johnny thought for a brief moment, but then he understood. "Oh, maybe it's the contact lenses."

"The what?" Dracula asked, completely confused by his answer.

"These little plasticy doodads that help me see better," Johnny pointed to his eyes. "Here, let me just get them out real quick." He proceeded to try and get one of the contact lenses out of his eye.

However, Dracula got really squeamish and acted hysterical, crying out, "Oh! That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!"

"Almost got it..." Johnny continued to try and get the contact lens out of his eye.

"Stop doing that. Please, stop doing that!" Dracula begged, freaking out even more until he lost it, shouting hysterically, "FINGERS AWAY FROM THE EYEBALLS! ENOUGH!" He grabbed Johnny's hands and pulled them away from his face.

The second his hands were pulled away, Johnny noticing the still frozen Elisa standing by. "Hey, what did you do to Ellie?" he demanded in concern.

With a wave of his hand, Dracula released Elisa from the immobilized spell and she was by Johnny's side again, but before she could say anything she caught notice of Dracula's dangerous scowl.

"Listen to me...Both of you..." he hissed. "You are to leave this place and never return. You are to stay away and never tell humans about this place. Or I will track you down, and suck every ounce of blood from your bodies until you look like a pair of deflated Whoopie Cushions!" He grew slightly taller and more terrifying while he made this threat.

Johnny looked up at the vampire, cowering fearfully before him. However, Elisa didn't want to appear the weak one when she remembered standing up to her own father.

"Whoopie Cushions? Is that the best threat you can come up with?" She stared him down, willing to call his bluff. "I'll hammer a wooden steak right through your heart if you try...if you even _have_ a heart!"

Dracula frowned back at Elisa in silence. The two of them stared down at each other, neither one willing to give in to the other for the longest seconds, yet they still noticed something more while staring strongly into each other's eyes.

Once he snapped out of it, Dracula, with a wave of his arm, growled, "Be gone."

Slouching, Johnny started to walk away with his hands shoved in his coat pockets. Scoffing, Elisa followed him close behind. Dracula transformed into a bat, and flew off into the night and back to his hotel.

Elisa and Johnny made their way through the graveyard, fuming mad over Dracula's threat and wishing they could have stayed longer.

"Oh, man, this is so unfair!" Johnny complained. "Why did that dude have to be such a jerk? Not cool, man!"

"Especially trying to erase our memories!" Elisa bitterly agreed, remembering her encounter with the Count back in that isolated village.

"So, why didn't he try to erase your memories?" Johnny asked, realizing something.

Elisa looked puzzled, not really sure how to answer until she said, "Honestly, I don't know. He probably froze me to keep me from stopping him when he tried to erase your memories. I thought for sure I was going to be next."

"Well, it still wasn't cool!" Johnny lamented, as they walked a little further into the creepy graveyard. "I still can't believe we're leaving, man," he huffed. "I could've been so great! Dude ruined everything!"

"I know," Elisa sighed, but she stopped for a moment to gaze dreamily and longingly back at the hotel, a formidable fortress silhouetted in the distant background.

"Suck my blood. I should have said, 'We're staying, old man!'" Johnny continued, before he performed a martial arts move or two of his own. "Give him a Bruce Lee kick. BOOM!" he yelled, obviously showing off more than from true skill, "Right in the-AH!"

A little black bat came flying right up to him out of nowhere. Startled, Johnny cowered in fear on the ground as he covered his face, and begged in wailing, "Oh my God! Count Dracula, please don't kill me! We're leave, we're leaving!"

But the little black bat transformed into Mavis, as she sat upon a nearby tombstone. She giggled at Johnny's reaction. Johnny realized who it really was, so he stood up while chuckling in embarrassment. "Oh, hi Mavis. I didn't see you there."

"Don't worry. I followed my dad when he brought you here." Jumping off the tombstone, Mavis leaned in a little closer to a nervous Johnny and whispered inquisitively, "Follow me."

"Oh...No, no. Mavis, I can't," Johnny refused insistently. "We have to leave."

Mavis stopped at the mouth of a secret tunnel to turn around, and almost flirtatiously convinced him to come with her, "You sure? It'll be fun."

"Okay," he said, immediately forgetting Dracula's threat when a goofy grin spread across his face.

Turning back around, Elisa had spotted Johnny chasing after Mavis in a dark cave. "What the...? No, wait, Johnny! Come back! You heard what Dracula said!"

But Johnny didn't listen. He had followed the pretty vampire girl through the tunnel and disappeared.

Rolling her eyes, Elisa sighed in deep worry, "Oh, boy," before she disappeared through the tunnel to chase after them, revealing the tunnel to be the mouth of a carved face of the Phantom of the Opera.

* * *

Elisa had gotten separated from Mavis and Johnny right after they had all returned to the hotel through the secret tunnel from the graveyard, as she emerged from an old air vent. While she tried to find them, she had a second thought that it would be a good idea to let the two kids get to know each other a little better. But at the same time, she had to avoid Dracula at all coasts, fearing he would keep his threat to suck her blood should she ever set foot in the hotel again.

As she peeked around the corner to make sure the vampire wasn't there, Elisa noticed two guards marching down the hallway but across the far end of the hallway in the opposite direction. Sighing in relief, she turned in the opposite direction... only to find herself face-to-face with a very angry Dracula. Although his eyes weren't glowing red in rage, she could tell very clearly he was less than thrilled to see her again.

Startled, Elisa shrieked and tried to throw a punch to defend herself, but the vampire shoved her against the wall with incredible force he would've seriously injured her. Her arms pinned against the wall by two strong hands so she couldn't escape the Count's grasp. She struggled in attempt to escape but due to being a vampire, he had gained the upper hand.

"WHY DID YOU COME BACK?!" Dracula bellowed. "I warned you what would happen if either of you humans came back! I won't warn you again!" He eyed her neck and smirked dangerously. "Or would you like me to bite that delicate neck of yours." The vampire leaned in, brushing his cheek against hers and came close enough to biting her when...

"Wait! I'm sorry, it's just that...we forgot our backpacks!" Elisa fibbed, in order to cover up for Johnny and Mavis, and trying to stay strong when in the grasp of a vampire. "Just let me get our backpacks and I'll be out of your hair for good. Please!"

The vampire withdrew from her neck, thankfully no blood on his lips and no marks on her neck. Calming himself and taking a deep breath, Dracula released his hold on her and backed away. "Alright. Your backpacks are still in the closet."

In the lobby, Dracula searched the storage closet to retrieve the backpacks. He found Johnny's large travel backpack first, but it took him some time to search for Elisa's smaller one.

Suddenly, Elisa remembered what had happened back at the pool earlier. Even though she was irritated by his behavior, she felt it was unnecessary to let his chivalrous rescue be forgotten. "By the way, I never got a chance to thank you."

"For what?"

"For saving me...at the pool."

Dracula was taken aback by her sudden gratitude; his tense body language softened while he responded in sincerity, "Your welcome. I...I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Maybe you're not such a bad guy, after all." Elisa chuckled softly, and admitted something else. "And you're not entirely like my father. You did trust Mavis enough to visit that village out in the woods on her own."

Dracula's face softened while he allowed her words to sink in. Feelings the knife of guilt stab him in his heart, and in his conscience. But before he could say anything else...

"Why didn't you erase my memories when you had the chance?" Elisa asked, out of the blue.

The vampire gaped at her, taken aback once again. He didn't know what to say except he stammered, "Uh, I uh...you insisted you didn't want them erased, so I didn't."

"No, I mean, back in the graveyard," she answered. "Unlike Johnny, I don't need to wear contact lenses."

Dracula seemed to shiver at that memory. Elisa couldn't hide an amused smile. He looked away as though thinking of what to say, but his mind was blanked on words. He was too embarrassed and ashamed to tell her the true reason why he couldn't erase her memories. Dracula had developed romantic feelings for Elisa.

As if she read his mind, Elisa said, "You know it's weird, but back at the village it felt like a zing happened."

"What did you say?" Dracula asked, shocked at the word she used, not sure if he heard her right.

"A zing," Elisa repeated. "You know? That special feeling of love when you meet someone special. It sounds like a fairy tale, but I've always believed it to be possible. But I guess it was nothing but a fluke, because I never met anyone special."

Dracula came a little closer to Elisa as though to comfort her, his mind still racing with what to say other than silence. After remaining silent for a long moment, not knowing what to say or to think, he couldn't help wondering how this human woman even knew about a zing. It seemed impossible, even unrealistic for a human to know what a zing truly was. However, it drew him closer to her even more. It filled him with joy but at the same time it frightened him, confused to why he felt this way and felt he was becoming a traitor to Martha's memory.

"It's not a fairy tale, like you said," he whispered. "Or maybe it seems that way because...you haven't met that special someone..."

Drawn by an unseen force to her, Dracula glided his hand gently across her cheek. Elisa looked up at him, staring into those astonishing blue eyes. His face coming so closer now she could smell his intoxicating scent. Their faces so close their lips barely touched. All of a sudden, Dracula harshly pulled away as if some opposing fear forced him back.

Elisa looked confused when she saw an unreadable expression on his face as he said quietly, yet coldly to her, with his back turned to her, "Get out of my hotel."

"But, I..." Elisa tried to object, but he cut her off.

"GET OUT!" Dracula bellowed, icily. He sprinted away from her and out of the lobby, a sting of guilt gripping at his aching heart while he tried to keep it from his face.

Elisa stood where she remained for a moment, feeling saddened and hurt by his sudden rejection. "Good-bye," she whispered." The heartbroken young woman turned to leave when a loud voice startled her.

"Elisa, there you are! Where have you been?" It was Eunice, and her sudden appearance forced Elisa to stop in her tracks. "Wanda and I want you to join us in the spa for some girl time."

"I'm sorry, Eunice," Elisa shook her head. "I have to...uh, take care of important hotel business."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait," Eunice brushed it off.

"But, Dracula..." Elisa didn't have time to finish when Eunice put her long stitched arm around the human woman's shoulders.

"Forget about what Drac thinks," the female golem told her, also cross with Dracula's actions. "Nobody's forgotten about that stunt he pulled back at the pool."

Elisa smiled, and with no other choice she and Eunice left the lobby for the spa.

As soon as the two women had left, Dracula returned alone to his lobby thinking the human girl had left. He slowly paced back and forth in front of the lobby fireplace, his thoughts musing about that almost kiss with Elisa, and his strange feelings for her. He wondered how she even knew about a zing and knew what it was, and knew what it felt like. What she described happening between them back in the village, it couldn't have been a zing because it only happens once. But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed true, and the more it made it impossible to believe. And yet, the more time Dracula spent with her, the more he wanted to be around Elisa. How difficult it became for him to resist any romantic thoughts he had for her, it grew difficult not feeling like a traitor to his late wife's memory and to monsterkind.

His thoughts would have wandered more when he nearly ran into Frank, the second the giant golem monster came up to him with a friendly smile. "Hey, Drac. What have you been up to?"

Briefly startled, Dracula grinned sheepishly. "Nothing, Frankie. I was just, uh, taking care of business."

"Well, I know it hasn't been easy planning Mavy's birthday," Frank said comfortingly, while he placed a friendly hand on the vampire's shoulder. "My wife and Wanda went to the spa. I think we should do the same, what do you say?"

Dracula smiled at his friend's suggestion. "You're right, Frankie, we do need some fun, and I know just where to go. Gather the others and meet me in the sauna." At this point he was willing to do anything to take his mind off of Elisa, even if she and her annoying little friend were gone at last, or so he believed.


	12. Sunrise, Sauna and Spa

A smiling Mavis popped out from one of the smoke stacks and climbed out to get on the rooftops of the hotel.

Johnny followed after her, but he grew weary while he peeked out and looked around, expecting Dracula to pop out of nowhere and suck his body dry of blood. "He's not gonna see me, is he?" he asked nervously.

"My dad doesn't know we're here," Mavis reassured him. "C'mon out."

Climbing out of the smoke stack and climbing up the roof to catch up with her, Johnny gasped "Whoa!" in awe of the view.

Before him was an incredible view of the area surrounding the castle. The tall mountains and the mist-covered forest that surrounded and protected this isolated castle from the human eyes. It was incredible.

"Wow! Would you look at the view from up here?" Johnny climbed to the other side, nearly slipping on a loose tile, before he recovered from this little mishap. "You could almost see Budapest!"

"Budapest? Mavis asked, eager to hear more. "Is that near Ha-Wi-Fi?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean Hawaii," Johnny corrected. "Yeah, that place is a knockout. I just went to a music festival there."

"A human music festival?" Mavis' eyes widened.

"Uhh, I believe so." Johnny remembered he had to be careful with the words he used while remaining in his monster disguise.

Worry crossed over Mavis' features as she expected the worst. "So did they all bite your toes and shove garlic bread in your face?"

"No." Johnny found the idea ridiculous, just like Elisa did. "Although one dude took a bite out of my energy bar than I expected, but I blame that on the heat."

Mavis slunked her shoulders from all the tension and worry she felt from his stories for no reason. "It's amazing," she confessed. "You've been everywhere!"

"Well, you know, what's the alternative?" Johnny stood up to spread his arms out while he spun around. "Just staying at home, never exploring, never seeing what's out there? I'm only going to be, uh...121 once, right? Gotta live it."

Mavis thought about what he said and then looked away, sadly muttered, "Yeah." She had been kept inside the hotel all her immortal life, except she visited a village where humans attacked her and she believed her father had been right after all. But Elisa had told her not all humans are terrible, and she could try a different village to meet humans that are friendly and welcoming to monsters. Now Mavis wasn't so sure what to believe.

Just then, Johnny took notice of a crack of sunlight appearing from the top of the mountains. As the light slowly touched the rooftops he said, "Aw, man. The sunrise from here must be amaz..."

"OW!" Mavis cried, pulling her feet out of the sun's rays the second she felt her toes burn and her shoes started smoking.

Johnny whirled around, just in time to see what happened. Remembering that Mavis is a vampire and vampires burn in the sunlight, he felt guilty for not realizing it sooner. "Oh! I'm sorry. You've probably never even seen a sunrise, have you?"

"No, not really," Mavis replied, but she was confused. "Why?"

"C'mon," Johnny held out a hand for her to take. "I have an idea."

Though puzzled, Mavis took hold of his hand so he could help her up. He pulled her over to one of the bigger chimneys close by, one of them where the shadows still lingered from the sun's rays.

Once he made sure Mavis was safe, Johnny peered over the edge of the chimney. "Watch," he said.

Mavis was confused as to why she was supposed to be looking at a sunrise. But as she watched, the rising sun created a beautiful atmosphere as it gradually crept up above the mountains. The colors of the sky created a mixture of fantastic gold and pink. To Mavis, it brought a stunning amazement to the young vampire girl's astonished blue eyes. Johnny smiled, knowing he had helped her by sharing what she had missed out for two centuries.

* * *

A dragon lit the heat in the hotel's private sauna, creating thick hot steam to fill up the entire sauna, raising the temperature high enough to make even the most undead monsters sweat. Dracula and his friends, all wearing nothing but white towels, sighed happily as they settled in for some relaxation time.

"Ahh. Didn't I tell you guys we'd have fun in here?" Dracula sighed in satisfaction with a smile. "Is this not the best?"

Blobby took a piece of himself off his body and let it steam on a pile of hot rocks, while Wayne panted and slurped in enjoyment.

"Yeah," Wayne added as he licked his muzzle. "I'm working up a nice sweat. When's that Johnny kid gonna be done party planning? And how's Ellie working on that assistant-manager job thing? They're a great hang."

"Yeah, he's an animal," Frank agreed. "You know, it was so nice seeing Mavis laughing and hitting it off with him."

Dracula began to feel uncomfortable at the mention of those despicable humans, his innate overprotective nature of his only child grew along with his irritation at his friends' even mentioning those pests, whom he had finally gotten rid of. "Who's hitting what off? Please!" he scoffed dismissively. "Mavis could never be with...someone of _his_ kind."

Frank arched his eyebrow, feeling insulted. "I'm sorry? _His kind?_ " He got visibly cross, while quoting with his fingers. "You're saying our kind's not good enough for you, _Your Lordship?_ "

Dracula realized a second too late his unintended insult, clearly having forgotten the human boy's disguise and cover story as Frank's right arm's cousin. "No, no, no! Frank, I didn't…" the vampire nervously tried to reassure his friend, never intending to insult him, but he needed to clear things up with a good excuse. "I meant that she wouldn't be into someone with...uh...such, red curly hair."

"Uh...What's wrong with red curly hair?" Griffin asked, now the one feeling insulted as well.

"Why are you getting upset?" Dracula asked.

" _I_ HAVE RED, CURLY HAIR!" Griffin shouted angrily.

"WELL, HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!" Dracula yelled in frustration.

"C'mon, Drac," Murray cut in. "At least give the kid a chance, he's a great guy. Didn't you see how happy Mavis was with him? Speaking of which..." Murray had a weird smug on his face. "What's going on with you and Elisa?" he asked teasingly, while he wiggled his eyebrows.

Dracula suddenly got tense at this sudden question. Even in the hot steam and through thick sweat he blushed, though perhaps there was more to sweat than just the steam. "WHAT?!" he huffed, insistently. "Where did you get such a ridiculous idea, Murray? There is absolutely nothing going on between me and Elisa!"

"You sure?" Wayne asked, his eyebrow raised. "Because ever since she got here, you've been giving her funny looks...and you looked ready to tear apart the next monster who tried to flirt with her."

"Nothing is going on!" Dracula responded, in a harder tone. "Martha was the only one for me, the only one I could ever love! Elisa means nothing to me..." His tone changed to one of affection, "...even though she is friendly, spunky, and attractive." Slip of the tongue.

"Oooooohh," his friends whooped.

"Sounds like somebody zinged!" Murray teased.

"Give it a rest, guys," Dracula scoffed in displeasure at his friends' teasing, hoping to drop the subject. "And I didn't zing with that witch!" he added snippy.

"Fine." Frank shrugged his shoulders. "So what about Johnny and Mavis? You think there could be something going on?"

"No!" Dracula frowned in distain. "He's not perfect for my Mavy! Besides I'm certain he's a bad influence for her, just like Elisa has been a bad influence on my daughter."

"A bad influence?!" Griffin's glasses clearly showed he was scowling.

Frank decided to speak up. "Mavis isn't a kid anymore, and your helicopter parenting skills is influencing your judgement. Not too many monsters her age come to the hotel often because of you, so it's hard for her to meet anybody. My cuz is a great kid, and you should give him and Mavy a chance! You should give Ellie a chance, cause we've all seen how you behave around her, other than acting rudely!"

The others voiced their agreements. Dracula had hoped after he finally got rid of the humans, it was the end of that, but his friends weren't letting it go. This conversation wasn't what he had in mind at all when he wanted to relax with his friends.

* * *

Around that time, Mavis and Johnny were still outside and watching the sunrise. Johnny noticed the sun's rays slowly coming closer to Mavis' feet, and he knew she could get burned again. So being very gentle and careful, he took hold of her arms and slowly led her back into the shadows.

"This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen," she whispered, eyes still focused on the rising sun.

Johnny smiled, satisfied to have shown Mavis her first sunrise. But the moment came to an end when Johnny suddenly fell through a weaker part of the roof. He screamed the second he vanished down the hole.

Startled, Mavis looking down through the open hole where Johnny had once stood. "Johnny?" she called out, concerned.

* * *

Back in the sauna, things were not looking so good. Dracula tried to win back his friends' good sides. So far, his friends were all glaring at him, upset for his rude comments on Elisa and Johnny. Although, Blobby was the only one not glaring since he looked quite scared.

Hoping to salvage the situation since his friends had gotten irritated with him about Johnny and Elisa, Dracula said as reasonably as he could, "Look, settle down, fellas. This is all a mood point. Because Elisa and Johnny, they...they left."

"Wait a minute. They left?" Murray asked in disbelief.

"Yes!" Dracula exclaimed as he scratched his chin, "Elisa realized she never wanted anything to do with me, or us. And Johnny, he decided he didn't like Mavis, or any of us." He leaned back casually and crossed his legs as he tried to relax, thinking it was the end of the conversation.

Suddenly as if by the work of fate, the ceiling collapsed above him and a screaming Johnny fell through the hole, landing right on the unsuspecting Dracula's lap, catching him on impulse.

"Hi..." Johnny greeted nervously, but Dracula shot an angry death glare at this continuous human nuisance.

Frank leaned in closer to them as pointed out the obvious, suspiciously, "Hmm, I guess Johnny had second thoughts."

This caused Dracula to panic on the inside.

"Uhh, about what?" Johnny asked.

"Dracula said that you...you hated us," Frank explained, hoping this wasn't true.

"Hate? I don't hate anybody! I like you guys!" Johnny told them with sincerity.

"Really?" Murray's face brightened up joyously.

"Yes!" Johnny nodded, while Dracula had a look of displeasure and annoyance.

"But, if you're still here...than Elisa must be here, too!" Wayne exclaimed, excitedly.

"So, you still want to hang out with us?" asked Griffin.

"Sure," Johnny nodded. "I'll hang with you whenever you want."

"You promise?" Frank asked.

"He promises!" Dracula yelled in irritation.

"STOP YELLING AT US!" Frank yelled back at him, loudly, as Johnny tightened his arms around Dracula's neck, looking just as scared as he was.

* * *

In the hotel spa, resembling a Medieval dungeon complete with spa equipment looking mostly like torture devices of various kinds; such as an iron maiden said to be used for acupuncture treatment, tables for stretching, and an octagonal shape cauldron which was the hot tub, where Elisa was now relaxed in, the water covering her nude form. It had been forever, she needed a chance to unwind, and this had to be the best hot tub she had ever been in, if not the only one in her entire life.

Her new monster friends, Eunice and Wanda, were also enjoying themselves; Eunice and a lady gremlin were getting deep tissue messages from Gustav, who happened to be the hotel's spa supervisor and head masseuse, while one of his other arms adjusted the temperature for Elisa in the hot tub, and Wanda and a purple faced hag lounged comfortably nearby with their eyes covered with cucumbers. These ladies wore nothing but white towels or robes that covered their own bodies.

"Ahh. I definitely needed this," Elisa sighed in content.

"I told you we needed some girl time," Eunice grinned.

"It's not often we get time away from the boys, but I hope they're having a good time like we are," Wanda added.

Eunice sighed in content. "You said it. But, I'm still curious. What's going on between our new friend, Elisa, and Drac?"

This caused Elisa to sit up straight in a snap when she heard this, startled by the very mention of the vampire. "WHAT?!"

"You and Dracula," Eunice said, "What's going on with the two of you? Do you like him or what?"

Elisa scoffed bitterly. "Pfft! Are you kidding me? I can't stand him. He is such a control freak...even though he is _way hotter_." She finished her sentence with a dreamy look in her eyes.

Eunice and Wanda, who removed one cucumber to look, glimpsed first at Elisa and then to each other at what she recently said.

Wanda removed both cucumber slices from her eyes to say, "Well, I think you should give him a chance. He's really not so bad once you get to know him. It hasn't been easy for him since he lost Martha."

"Maybe..." Elisa sighed, remembering what almost happened before coming to the spa.

"And..." smirked Eunice, "with a pretty face like yours, he'd be an idiot not to see how special you are. Darling, you have a lot to offer."

Elisa smiled, thinking they may be right. She had a hard time admitting to herself she might actually like Dracula. Heck, she even developed a crush on him and perhaps he feels the same way. But then, why did he act like a jerk toward during their encounters? Perhaps they were wrong, and Dracula kept true to his word of his loathing for humans. He would never feel the same way about her.

She thought about this for a moment, before noticing something strange with the color in the water of the hot tub. Elisa gasped when she realized it was the dark green paint of her makeup. She took out her hand and bits of green had already faded away, which meant her makeup was starting to wash off. Quickly, she got out of the hot tub and wrapped a towel around her nude form, hoping it covered enough of her true human complexion to keep Eunice and Wanda from suspecting anything.

"Where are you going?" Eunice asked.

"Sorry, girls, I have to go, uh...take care of, uh...something I promised Dracula and it's personal. So, uh, I gotta go." Elisa ran out of the spa, hoping she didn't look too suspicious, and it wasn't long until she ran into the last person she expected to see.

Dracula mumbled rude remarks while he forcibly lead Johnny away from his friends and out of the sauna. Not only had both humans returned after he seriously threatened to suck their blood, fatty though it may be, this one had fallen right into his lap while the vampire wore nothing but a white cotton towel. And that female human is still lurking around in his hotel somewhere. He was a Count of noble high class blood and breeding, so he shouldn't have to suffer such humiliation. Especially with these kind of humans.

"This can't get any worse," Dracula grumbled moments before bumping into somebody.

It was Elisa. In nothing but a white cotton towel.

"ELLIE!" Johnny gaped loudly, his mouth widely agape when he saw her. "OHH, MY GOD!" He covered his eyes to hide his view of her, blushing beneath his own makeup.

Dracula, surprised to see her still at the hotel, felt his eyes pop out of his head. "What're you doing here?!" But as he gazed at her figure the vampire goes hot under the collar once again when he sees her beautiful body hidden beneath a towel.

Elisa remained briefly silent from this awkward embarrassment, stuttering, "I...might ask you the same thing." She eyed his figure and looked up, smiling genuinely at him. "I had no idea that you look so gorgeous."

However, Dracula could only stare at her. Eyes so wide in embarrassment and astonishment. He blushed a beet red at her comment. The air between them suddenly a few degrees hotter than before. Both of them tightened the towels they wore to themselves, both unsure of what to say or if to say anything at all in this crazy encounter.

"Uh...I uh, maybe I should, uh...get dressed," Elisa mumbled bashfully, while she turned a different direction to go find her black dress.

"Yes, of course," Dracula agreed, clearing his throat while trying not to stare at this beautiful human girl before him.

Peeking out from behind the sauna door, Griffin smirked, "I guess Elisa couldn't stay away from the old vampire charm."

Dracula shot the Invisible Man an icy scowl, but tried to maintain his dignity like nothing happened while using his telekinesis to slam the sauna door right in Griffin's face as he cried out, "Ow!"


	13. Table Races and Kitchen Rescues

Later that morning, Dracula angrily burst open the large doors to the ballroom, before realizing he was still wearing the towel he wore in the sauna. Using his powers, Dracula quickly changed into his regular clothing and then entered the ballroom like nothing happened. Johnny and Elisa followed after him frowning angrily, but Dracula was the one angry the most at their return.

"I can't believe you stuck around, man. And you, baby, you stuck around at the spa behind my back!" he growled, frustrated. "You don't get it. Bad things are coming your way!" Dracula moved away in embarrassment as he tried to clear his head of that awkward moment of crashing into a Elisa, placing his fingers on his temples and tried to calm down. "I got to...I got to get my thoughts together." He took a deep breath, and then indicated to all the white cloth covered tables. "Okay, you see these tables? You can spend the entire day pulling them out and placing them, Party Planner." He growled sarcastically at those last two words as he grabbed Johnny by collar, then sarcastically growled to Elisa, "And you take that side, Assistant Manager!"

"Oh, fantastic, I'm trapped here," Johnny complained while he walked up to a table. "Now I know how your daughter feels."

"You and me both," Elisa mumbled as she walked up to the other side of the room to a table while hollering to Dracula. "You're even worse than my father!"

As Dracula ignored her comment and stood by in the middle of the room, he smoothed out his ruffled hair. Then, loud scratching noises sounded around him. Johnny and Elisa were struggling to push with all their might to move the tables into place. Dracula tried to hold in his rage, but the noises made him cringe so much it was getting to him.

"Enough, enough! Stop, both of you!" he shouted as he rushed in front of Johnny. "Go to a corner, you're in a time out!"

"Time out?!" Johnny repeated angrily. "I'm a grown man!"

But Dracula used his powers to throw Johnny into a corner of the ballroom, and he telekinetically made him suck his thumb like a toddler and face the wall.

"That goes for you too!" Dracula turned to Elisa, flying right into her face. "You're in a time out!"

"Are you kidding me?" Elisa yelled, indignity. "I'm not a child!"

But with a swift gesture, Dracula sent her to a separate corner of the ballroom away from Johnny, but he telekinetically made Elisa place her hand over her mouth to be quiet. "Okay," he announced with a clap of his hands. "Table 57, please move to position 23."

Johnny turned around to see a ghostly face appear on the table cloth and it floated to the spot where Dracula ordered with a gentle whoosh. "Whoa!" he gasped. "That is cool."

"Face the wall," Dracula scolded to Johnny as the young boy was forced to face the corner again and he continued to order the ghost tables to arrange themselves the way he wanted. "17 to 48...16 to 47...19 to 50."

Glancing over her shoulder, Elisa caught sight of the tables magically rearrange themselves to a different spot. "Amazing," she whispered in amazement.

"Awesomeness," Johnny exclaimed quietly.

"Just let me do my work!" Dracula scolded them, before resuming his work. "29 to 35...42 to 18...10 to 44...39 to 24."

While he wasn't looking, Johnny had freed himself of his thumb sucking and ran off to the other side of the room. He quietly counted out the tables, "17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23..." until he picked one he thought was right and hopped right on top one of it. "36, up!" he ordered, excitedly.

The ghost table gasped in surprise to see a boy on top, but it followed his orders. It rose high up with Johnny riding precariously on it and laughing crazily. Down below, Elisa watched amusingly while wishing she had the guts to do that but was far too afraid.

Dracula had finally heard the human boy's excited laughter as he looked up to see Johnny riding the floating table in the air. "31 to 19!" he ordered, frowning.

This caused another ghost table to fly and hit Johnny's table so hard, it knocked him off and he bounced painfully down onto one floating table after another until he landed on one still table on the floor. Dracula smirked triumphantly for his little prank, but Elisa frowned at him for what he did.

Getting back up, Johnny glared at the vampire with a challenging smirk. "24, up!" And his table rose high into the air.

"7 to 25...14 to 30," Dracula continued his arrangement of tables, without knowing what was going on behind his back.

To get back at Dracula for his little prank, Johnny had the table fly right at him while he was busy, but they completely missed him when they flew by him, barely hitting him. Dracula scowled at Johnny for his antics.

Feeling inspired, Elisa decided to take a chance. She climbed on top of a nearby table and ordered, "13, up!" The table floated up rather too quickly. "Whoooaa!" she cried, holding on to the tablecloth for support. Elisa leaned forward and it flew in the direction she wanted. She flew straight past Dracula, barely avoiding him. The Count stared at the human girl in surprise, but then he smiled deviously and mischievously.

Johnny continued to float around the ballroom, laughing excitedly.

Elisa chuckled at how she almost hit Dracula until she realized something... "Wait! What am I doing? I'm afraid of heights!" She dropped flat on her stomach upon the table, hands gripping at the white cloth, and whimpering how she wanted to get off. But the floating table thought it was part of the game and it flew higher.

Noticing Dracula had disappeared, Johnny called out playfully, "Where'd you go, Grandpa?"

"Don't freak out, Gravity Face!" teased Dracula, as he appeared upside down on a table of his own in front of the Johnny.

"Eat my dust, Gray fangs!" Johnny teased back, as he flew away.

"56 and 43 to my side!" ordered Dracula, as two more tables appeared at his side to begin his pursue the younger man.

"Uh oh!" Elisa, seeing the two men approach her at rapid speed, ordered her table to make a run, or flight, for it to get out of the way. She tried to hang on and keep her distance from them at the same time while her table flew much faster, but she felt her body nearly slipping off to the side.

However, Dracula made his table fly straight towards her with great speed and gave Elisa a careful shove back on to the table's surface.

"I can't do this!" Elisa confessed. "I'm afraid of heights!"

"You can do it!" Dracula encouraged her, strangely no longer hostile toward her. "Try not to think about it! There's nothing to be afraid of!"

Elisa wasn't so sure while she hung on for dear life, but then noticed Dracula was starting to chase her, shouting teasingly, "And I'm gonna get you, Bikini Baby!"

"You're gonna have to catch me first, Handsome!" Elisa shouted back, suddenly feeling as playful as Johnny.

She laughed gleefully while the Dark Prince chased after her, and she could hear him starting to laugh too, as if he was starting to really have fun in Johnny's prank on him.

Johnny looked back to see the Count right behind and he laughed. He ducked down a few times to avoid the other floating tables.

Dracula's table chased after Elisa's table literally around the room, both of them laughing excitedly. Johnny's table joined up Elisa's table a second later laughing his head off as well.

"Prepare to cry, Billy Backpack!" Dracula laughed, as he came close enough to Johnny's table as he tried to capture him, but the human boy was smart enough to escape his open arms.

"That's how we do it, half-pit, baby!" Johnny hollered, while he used the table to grind across the roof as if he were on a skateboard.

"Whatever!" Dracula shouted back with a grin.

Dracula continued to chase after the two humans in a playful fashion he never thought he was capable of in a hundred years.

* * *

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to all three of the them, Esmeralda was sniffing out the humans she had smelled earlier at the pool and at the lobby.

Quasimodo followed after his beloved pet rat, crawling and sniffing the stone floor. "Yes, keep smelling," said the excited hunchback chef. "You catch the humans, and then I will make HUMAN POTPIEEE!"

He shouted at the end of his sentence with exuberance excitement at the thought of those last two words, certain it will be his master piece concoction for the hotel guests; but first he needed the main ingredients.

The trail ended up at the door to the ballroom. Quasimodo and his pet rat leaned their ears to the door to listen closely when they both heard laughter.

* * *

All three tables continued to fly like crazy around the ballroom, with Johnny and Elisa avoiding Dracula.

As Dracula continued to after chase the two humans, he ordered a number of tables around the great hall into the air, "27, 45, 65, 75, 48, block their path! BLOCK THEIR PATH!"

The tables created a wall, almost filling the center of the great hall from ceiling to floor, with only slight gaps. This surprised the two humans.

"Oh, ho!" Johnny whooped, up to the challenge.

Elisa cringed, worried she might never make it.

The table flew closer to the wall, but Johnny leapt through a gap with a spin, smiling happily. Then he landed on another table on the other side.

"Aw, c'mon, Dude-man! Nice!" Dracula shouted, looking quite impressed at what he saw.

Watching him, Elisa looked surprised but then she felt hesitation. "I can't do it!" she exclaimed.

Dracula seemed to notice her behavior and he shouted encouragingly to her again, "You can do it, Elisa, I know you can!"

Somehow she felt oddly reassured by his encouragement, and seeing no other way around the table way, Elisa mustered up the confidence to try it. With self trust, she readied her jump. Timing it just right, she gracefully leaped through one of gaps. Her fears evaporated to excitement, landing on another table safely.

"Ohh, well done!" Dracula complimented, most impressed with her courage.

Using his table, Dracula flew closer to the wall. One of the tables started to whisper a pray that nothing would go wrong. But Dracula jumped at the last second through a gap with wide eyes and laughing hysterically for the first time in decades. This was the best time of his undead life, and it made him feel alive again. Feeling a strong sense of excitement, Dracula leapt from one table after another laughing joyously and spread his arms wide after doing a spin in the air expecting to land on another table.

It was then he noticed there was nothing beneath him but the floor, to where he was falling, but Johnny caught him in his arms and on his table as he said, "I gotcha, Buddy!"

The table carrying its two passengers flew out of the ballroom doors and into the hallway. Elisa's table followed right behind them, but she lost sight of them, while she was practically enjoying her flight through the hallway. Dracula and Johnny laughed while they playfully tried to push each other off.

"Do not disturb!" shouted every shrunken head on every door. "People are trying to sleep here!"

A witch maid ducked for cover as the flying table flew over her, barely missing her in the nick of time. Dracula and Johnny got their faces covered by the sheets the maid was carrying, but they pulled the towels off their faces and just laughed it off in their whimsy, until they noticed something that made them stop laughing. Their table was heading straight for a guard, who gasped when he caught sight of the oncoming flying table. Johnny and Dracula held each other as they screamed. The guard tried to run but the table came too fast and crashed into him.

Dracula found himself in a rather awkward position on the floor, but instead of being mad he had a very large smile on his face, laughing. "Oh-ho-ho! Did you see that?" he exclaimed, as he swiftly righted himself and grabbed the guard's helmet. "Who is that guy, Sir Breaks-a-Lot?" He tossed the helmet away, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. "Oh, boy! I have to say...THAT was fun." The vampire looked down at the unhappy ghostly table sheet. "Okay, the fun you were talking about earlier?" He clapped his hands together. "Nailed it!"

He removed the ghostly tablecloth where he presumed the young man was under, but Johnny was gone. Only the torso of the armor was under the cloth. The Count's face dropped.

"Johnny?" Dracula looked around in concern when he noticed muddy footprints going down one of the corridors. Instantly knowing who owned those tiny footprints and feeling a very protective emotion inside his chest, Dracula growled in realization, "Quasimodo!"

Now greatly concerned for the human boy, Dracula raced down the corridors of his hotel at super speed, leaving a trail of dust behind him. His face hard in determination. The sound of his feet sounded like a runaway locomotive.

But as he passed another side corridor, he screeched to a halt when he noticed something; it was another crashed table from the great hall with the ghostly table cloth laying on the floor. Examining the table, Dracula remembered who else had been riding the table, "Elisa!" and near it was the same muddy trail of footprints he had been following. His heart skipped a beat when he realized Quasimodo had snatched Elisa as well as Johnny.

The Count took off in a burst of speed down the corridor, determined to save not only Johnny but Elisa too. If something bad happened to them because of that suspicious chef, Dracula would never forgive himself. Whatever loathing he felt for those two humans melted away like ice replaced by love and concern for them.

Unfortunately, Dracula had to stop when he almost collided into Mavis, who shielded herself with her arms, thinking her father was about to collide into her. Luckily, he halted in time to keep himself from crashing into his daughter.

"Mavis? Why are you still up?" he asked, while he slowly walked past her. "The sun is out. It could kill you, my Honeyguts."

"I couldn't sleep. Do you know where Johnny went?" Mavis asked.

"Uh, I don't know. He uh..." he halted and his face dropped when he suddenly realized something. "Why do you want to know?" he asked suspiciously, leaning over his daughter with narrowed eyes.

"Oh? Uh..."

"Do you like him?"

"What?! Pfft! No. C'mon, Dad," Mavis scoffed. "He's so weird and awkward. It's like are you an idiot, or do you know you're adorable?" She brushed her hair back behind her ear with a dreamy look in her eyes.

Dracula was stunned in silence, shocked by his daughter's admission. And he thought he was the only one falling in love with a human, Elisa. But now, Mavis is in love with the human boy, Johnny.

"Eh…uh…hold that," Dracula said awkwardly, and then glided to the nearest guard to ask quietly, "Do you have a location on Quasimodo?"

"Yes, sir," replied the guard, watching the chef carrying two captives in its view in another part of the hotel, "They're headed towards the kitchen, through the main lobby."

"I need them stopped immediately. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir! We are on it!"

As the hunchback chef walked through the lobby, carrying a tied up and gagged Elisa and Johnny on his back, the elevator doors opened and a group of guards with weapons came charging out into the lobby and pursued the surprised chef. Quasimodo tried to make it to the exit when two guards blocked his path.

"What is the meaning of this? Let me pass!" demanded Quasimodo.

"Quasimodo Wilson, you are coming with us!" One of the guards spoke, and reached out to grab the chef, but the hunchback kicked him in the nuts. "Ow! Why did that hurt me?"

The rest of the knights tried to catch him, but Quasimodo escaped from their grasp, climbing up to the ceiling and clung on to the chandelier, cackling.

* * *

Elsewhere, Dracula took Mavis to the library to have a little father-daughter talk.

"Look, Honey, there's no falling in love at your age," Dracula said, like all fathers trying to explain it to their daughters.

"Mom was _my_ age," Mavis defended and then smirked. "Eunice said Mom kissed you first because you were too scared to make the first move."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he groaned. "Forget about me and Mom and kissing."

"Dad, at some point I'm going to get married," Mavis replied, slumping. "I can't be here forever."

"What?! Why not? You're barely out of your training fangs." Dracula tried to convince his daughter to think about someone else as they walked deeper into the library. "Besides, we have plenty of eligible men right here."

"Like who?" Mavis asked sarcastically, unconvinced by this claim and crossed her arms.

"Umm...eh...Glenn!" Dracula grinned, shrugging.

"Glenn?" Mavis questioned, shocked. "The crazy angry guy under the stairs?"

"Yes! Him. That's the one." Dracula casually opening a nearby trapdoor in the floor from which came a loud roar, followed by several bones to fly out.

"But he's tied up under there like a dog," Mavis cringed in pity at poor Glenn down below. "He's not even allowed to leave there."

Glenn let out another roar, while Dracula looked down through the trap door with a big smile on his face.

"Well, sure. That's for everyone's safety," Dracula tried to explain, as though it were perfectly obvious. He then placed an arm around Mavis's shoulder as he continued, "But you don't have to live down there. See the thing is, you know he'll always be there for you, and that's important in a partner."

But Mavis frowned at him. Glancing down at Glenn with uncertainty, Mavis pushed her father away from her, making it quite clear she didn't want Glenn. "Sorry, Dad. I'd rather pick Johnny over Glenn." And she slammed the trap door shut.

* * *

In the lobby, Quasimodo eluded the knights, all were now backed up by the gargoyle waiters, giving them the slip. Right after Quasimodo destroyed the beautiful web banner that spelled out 'Happy 118th Birthday Mavis,' Esmeralda beat up the spiders, all on the side of the knights and gargoyles. Pieces of armor scattered all over the floor whilst a cackling Quasimodo ran off with his two hostages.

"Ha, ha! Quasi wins again!" The chef cackled in victory. "When you bump with the hump, you land on your rump!"

No sooner he had gone, a spider safely landed on the floor, using his web as a parachute. But he got crushed by a knight's helmet before he could crawl away.

* * *

"I've been out of my training fangs for eighty years, Dad," Mavis groaned. "So I know I'm old enough to understand some things, like love. And I can tell you like Elisa. Uncle Griffin told me how the two of you ran into one another...in towels. So c'mon, do you like her or not, because I do."

Dracula tensed at her sudden question, blushing from embarrassment thanks to Griffin. "Uh…well, that was an accident…Ah, forget it!"

"You know, I wouldn't mind if you did," Mavis continued hopefully. "Even if I never knew my mother, I think Ellie would be a great one. She's really helped me a lot when we talked about my problems. So, do you like her?"

"I do, Honeybat, but not the way you think," Dracula tried to deny this, but Mavis walked off toward a white marble bust. "But why all the sudden interest? Every time we used to talk about love it was always 'Ew, Dad, that's gross' and 'Ew, Dad, I don't want to know about that.'"

"I don't know," Mavis sighed dreamily, while she stared up at the bust and stroked its cheek.

Just then, a guard burst through the library doors. "Sir, he made it into the kitchen!"

"He what?! What do I pay you for?!" Dracula shouted in frustration, and then spoke gently to a puzzled Mavis, "I'm sorry, Honey. I-I have to go."

And he was out the door in a flash while running past the guard.

The guard followed him but then he came back to tell Mavis before leaving, "He doesn't pay me."

In his bat form, Dracula flew rapidly through the lobby and down the downstairs corridor towards the kitchen, hoping he wasn't too late.

* * *

Around that moment, Elisa was hanging by a hook and chain over a boiling cauldron of extremely hot soup, which she thought is better than boiling acid. Looking at her surroundings, this place made her think it looked more like a torture chamber rather than a kitchen. Down below, Quasimodo slowly rotated poor Johnny over a huge fire tied to the roasting pole as if he was a pig being roasted.

Johnny gasped as he came out of the smoke and pleaded to the hunchback chef, "Before you kill me, can I please talk to my backpack one more time? I don't wanna leave anything unresolved."

"I wish you could've let me tell my family I'm sorry for everything…" Elisa mumbled in a sad frightened voice.

Suddenly the kitchen doors burst open and there stood a very angry Count Dracula.

"Bonsuir, Monsieur Dracula!" Quasimodo greeted the Count happily, but Dracula was clearly not in the mood for pleasantries.

"Shut your hump hole!" Dracula snarled, as he put the fire out with a swish of his cape, knocking the chef down, and untied Johnny. He would have gotten to Elisa, but Quasimodo blocked his path while hanging from a chain.

"Now you are helping them? What is it with you and these humans?" asked a suspicious Quasimodo.

"They are NOT humans! She is a vampire, and he is a Stein!" Dracula barked back, forcing the hunchback to shrink back.

"That's right, little man! I'm a Stein!" Johnny agreed, pleased that Dracula was here to protect him.

"If they are monsters, let him scare Esmeralda," Quasimodo challenged, gesturing to Johnny and then to his pet rat sitting on a nearby barrel.

"The mouse? Pfft! Without a doubt." Dracula scoffed confidently, before giving Johnny a look to say 'do it.'

"Okay, here we go." Johnny crept towards the rat and tried to pull some scary monster faces and noises in attempt to terrify the rat.

But Esmeralda didn't even flinch, nor was she intimidated. Instead she made a bored squeak which sounded like 'Really?' Her squeak caused a frightened Johnny to scream and stumble backwards.

"HUMANS!" Quasimodo screamed at the top of lungs. "HUMANS!" He proceeded to swing around the kitchen. "Monsieur Dracula has brought humans into the ho-"

Dracula froze Quasimodo in the air with his magic to keep him quiet, and the frozen chef fell right onto a wheel that held Elisa's chain over the soup cauldron. The wheel started to spin rapidly the second the lock came loose, causing Elisa to scream while she fell straight down toward the extremely hot boiling water in the cauldron.

"No!" shouted Dracula, leaping forward to catch hold of Elisa, just in the nick of time. However, her weight almost brought them closer to the boiling broth in the cauldron, forcing Dracula to use his feet to do a split in order to stand on the cauldron's edges. Such pain made Dracula's face look completely nuts, but he turned into a bat and carried Elisa out of harm's away. Holding her in his arms, he gazed into her eyes with tender concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," Elisa nodded.

Once the rescue was done, Dracula carried Elisa and left the kitchen to take her and Johnny somewhere safe away from that deranged hunchback chef. Johnny followed him close behind.

"Uh, I can still walk," Elisa tried to explain she was alright, but he didn't put her down.

The kitchen doors closed behind them, but a still frozen Quasimodo could speak except through muffling, "Esmeralda, help me!"

The only other person to hear him besides Esmeralda was the same gargoyle waiter the chef beat up multiple times. He looked around the kitchen, saw no one else and walked up to the frozen chef, seeing an irresistible opportunity. The gargoyle took Quasimodo's outstretched arm and shoved his pointer finger right up his long nose, and then walked away.


	14. Pain of the Past p1

As Dracula quietly led Johnny and Elisa down an empty hallway, it was Elisa who noticed that the Count looked unusually quiet and deeply saddened.

"Hey, thanks for saving us back there," said Johnny. "That guy's crazy. Trying to eat us. This only happened to me one other time with this weird dude at a Slipknot concert."

"Drac...are you okay?" Elisa asked the Count, concerned.

"There's something I need to show you," replied Dracula, very sadly.

Dracula opened a door and entered a dark dusty room. Johnny and Elisa followed, yet they coughed lightly at the thick dust around them. Once they opened their eyes, the only light to be seen were from candles of a candelabra held by Dracula.

"Wow!" gasped Johnny, in pure amazement. "Hey, are we at a funeral right now?" Johnny noticed the coffin and walked up to touch it, amazed he was actually touching Count Dracula's coffin. "Oh, wait, no, it's your bed. So creepy and cool."

"Um, why did you bring us to your room?" Elisa figured this must be Dracula's private chambers judging by how dark and cold it was. It fit his taste as all she could see was the coffin. Two stone fire basins on both ends looked like guardians of the coffin. Above the coffin were draped curtains. One of the curtains covered half of a giant painted portrait, where Dracula stood before the image of a beautiful gothic woman. While looking at the painting, she stroked her fingers over the bottom of the portrait. "She's beautiful."

"Yes, she is." Dracula agreed, managing a little smile.

As he glanced up at the picture, Johnny gasped in surprise recognition. "Wow! I know her. I've seen that picture at the ruins of Lubov." Dracula glanced at Johnny in nostalgia as he spoke. "That's my favorite castle. There's a whole legend around that lady."

"A legend?" Dracula asked, puzzled.

"The Lady Lubov," Johnny said as he took the candelabra from Dracula and told the story he heard. "The story goes that she met a lonely Count by chance, and they say no two souls were ever more meant for each other. Eventually, they settled down at Castle Lubov and had a child. But then, a horrible tragedy happened. A fire started mysteriously one night, and it killed both of them. When I was at the castle, I could still feel their powerful love. They say it's as if a soul is still trapped in the ruins themselves."

Elisa sighed, romantically. "My mom used to tell me that bedtime story when I was little. It was always my favorite."

As Johnny held up the candelabra to the portrait, Elisa gasped as she took a closer look at the woman's image. "You were right, Johnny. She does look a little bit like me." The woman was very beautiful with long wavy black hair and pale skin and wide gleaming sapphire eyes, and she wore a long black dress and a black choker with a pink jewel. What really stunned Elisa was how strongly the woman resembled her...except the woman's eyes were crystalline blue and her hair a raven black color. Her facial features were slightly different from Elisa's, the woman's face looked long and oval shaped while Elisa's own face looked short and circle shaped.

"The legend is wrong," Dracula spoke quietly, his figure silhouetted in pitch black near the giant picture confusing the two humans. "It was only... the wife that died."

The Count suddenly pulled the curtain down hard, revealing the rest of the portrait. Elisa gasped at what she saw, and she understood why everyone thought she was this Martha person, which meant the woman in the portrait had to be this Martha she kept hearing about. Johnny gasped in surprise. Count Dracula, in the portrait, was smiling and lovingly holding hands with the Lady Lubov. He was the lonely count in the story.

"And it was no mystery who killed her," Dracula grit his teeth and his eyes glowed a menacing blue as he snarled, "She was killed by your kind!"

* * *

In a high window of Castle Lubov, two figures could be seen looking out at the angry mob now gathered at the front gates. Dracula stood with Martha, holding a precious bundle close to her while she worriedly held her husband's hand. Why the villagers were here, or even why they were attacking them, they didn't know, but it frightened them nonetheless. They had tried to stop the fire set to their home, but there were too many humans with too many torches, and it had spread very quickly.

"Honey?" Martha looked into her husband's eyes, not sure of what to do. "I'm scared."

"Go hide," Dracula said reassuringly while he gently touched her cheek with tenderness. "I'll take care of this."

He lovingly kissed her on the lips, attempting to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. As soon as their lips parted, he whispered, "I love you, Martha."

"I love you too, Dracula," she replied, brokenly.

Their hands slowly parted, neither of them knowing it will be the last time they touched and kissed.

Dracula had made his way to the front door and stood in full view of the enraged human villagers, farmers and shepherds. When they saw him appear, they started shouting insults at him.

"VAMPIRE!"

But Dracula remained calm as he tried to reason with the mob. Suddenly, he heard a high pitched scream of pain and death. His heart missed a beat as he feared who made it.

"MARTHA!"

Martha had fallen to the ground; her left arm seemed to be the last to fall in slow motion to Dracula's eyes. He knew at once he was too late.

Dracula picked up the little bundle and, using his cape to shield the baby, the Count burst through a shattered glass window, just as the flames engulfed all of Castle Lubov. Safely on a hillside, Dracula could only watch the remains of his once beloved home burn away while baby Mavis began to wail loudly, as if sharing his thoughts.

"THEY are the real monsters."

* * *

Saddened and shocked by this tragic story, Johnny sighed deeply, while Elisa felt a pang of guilt within her heart.

"I built this place for my love to protect her child," Dracula added sadly. "As a father, you do everything to keep your family safe, even if you have to break their trust. But now, Mavis has feelings for you."

"What? I just…" Johnny stammered in surprise a bit, and then sighed with a dreamy look in his eyes. "Awesome."

"It's alright, you are a good one. And I…" Dracula continued slowly with a sad smile, glancing at Elisa, "I believe I have...feelings for you, Elisa."

Elisa became stunned by this revelation, not knowing what to think. "Huh? You...you like me?" He nodded, and her guilt evaporated and she blushed with such flattery. "Oh...I don't know what to say, except thank you."

Dracula smiled and chuckled at her, but he grew sadder again. "If the world was different, maybe it would be possible."

"Drac, this is the 21st century," Johnny said. "People aren't the same as they were back then."

"Maybe not all people," Elisa mumbled under her breath as she fidgeted with her hands. "But, you never know, there are people out there who love monsters."

"Can you tell me for certain that if we came out in the open everyone would accept us? Everyone?" Dracula questioned, desperately.

Johnny looked back up at the portrait of Dracula and Martha. His face dropped in sadness while he considered what Dracula had told him. Elisa had a sick feeling in her stomach for she knew the answer was yes for some people. But the true answer was a hard one. Not everybody is a fan of monsters, especially her father. Johnny and Elisa now understood the pain Dracula felt all those centuries.

"No, you're right," Johnny replied, brokenly. "We understand. We'll go for good this time. You can just say I had some emergency, or the gremlin lady ate me, or something." He handed the candelabra back to the Count.

"No, no, no, no." Dracula shook his head and placed a hand on Johnny's shoulder to stop him from going. "I don't want to ruin her birthday party. You both can sneak out after it's all done."

"I'm sorry," Johnny said in sadness. "The last thing I wanted was to hurt her. Or you."

"I never meant to cause any problems for you...and your daughter," Elisa apologized, truly she meant it, and how she wished she could take back her horrid advice to Mavis of standing up to her father and leaving the hotel.

To make him feel less upset, Dracula decided to cheer them up. "You know, you would make a better vampire than a witch," he kindly told Elisa, as he tenderly stroked her cheek to brush some hair out of her face.

Looking up into his face, Elisa felt her face heat up by his gentle touch. "You think so? Because I'm terrible at making potions."

Chuckling, the vampire turned to the red-headed boy. "You're not the smoothest Frankenstein, but you'd make a great vampire."

Johnny's eyes lit up. "For real? Cause I think I kind of got your hypno eyes down."

Dracula rolled his eyes in amusement. "Oh, boy. Here we go. Let me see it."

Johnny backed up in the shadows before he emerged into the moonlight, his arm covered his face to make him look sinister as he spoke in an imitated Dracula accent. "Beware! For you are in my power. I command you to be the werewolf man!"

Dracula let out a long howl. "I have too many kids."

The two friends started laughing, enjoying their fun as Dracula exclaimed, "Someone scratch me, I have fleas!"

"Cause he's a wolf, he'd get those!" Johnny laughed.

"Yeah, no, don't explain it. It's not funny when you do that," Dracula chuckled, placing a hand on Johnny's shoulder.

Behind them, Elisa chuckled awkwardly at their joke, although she didn't find Wayne's pain amusing at all. She cherished the revelation of Dracula's feelings for her, but she would miss him terribly when she left him forever. When he recently said he had feelings for her, did this mean the two of them zinged? Her thoughts were interrupted by the vampire's clasp on her shoulder as he escorted her and Johnny out.

"Come on, I'll get you private rooms for you two to rest for the day," Dracula offered, leading his new friends out of his chambers.


	15. Pain of the Past p2

Sometime later, Dracula lead Elisa, her eyes closed as he instructed to do so, to an empty guestroom where there was plenty of space and told her to open her eyes. When she did, she gasped at the white cloth covered table in front of her, two plates each with a lid hiding its main course, two chalices beside the silverware, a wine bottle, and a black rose in a glass vase in the center. Two chairs had been placed very closely together instead of being separate.

"Oh, this is amazing!" gasped Elisa. "Did you make all of this yourself?"

"Well, I figured with Quasimodo frozen I had to do all the cooking myself," explained Dracula, bashfully rubbing the back of his neck. "And I know we got off to a rough start, so I wanted to make it up to you." He gestured for her to sit as he pulled a seat open for her to sit down. "Here you are," he said, gentlemanly. "Please, make yourself comfortable."

"Thank you," she replied, taking her seat beside him.

Dracula poured the wine bottle, revealed to be blood red, into his chalice and into her own. Elisa cringed slightly at her beverage, which the vampire took notice of.

"Don't worry, its not real blood," he assured her.

Relieved, Elisa took a tiny sip of her drink. Then Dracula pulled the lids off their plates to reveal the main course of their dinner; roasted chicken with a touch of red pepper, along with a few slices of cheese and plenty of salad. Elisa was truly surprised that it wasn't the kind of food the monsters would eat.

"Paprika chicken," he announced. "It's an old family recipe. I thought that would suit you since you're a human."

Elisa used the tiny axe, which had to be a knife, to cut in a slice of the meat and delicately placed a sliver in her mouth. To her surprise, it the paprika chicken tasted delicious. She told him this by nodding approvingly, "This is excellent!"

Dracula was pleased his secret crush was enjoying the meal he had prepared for her, and then he decided to dig into his meal as well.

After finishing their dinner, Dracula was eager for her to try the dessert as he placed a coffin shaped pan to the table. Lifting the lid, Elisa could see that it was a devil's food cake, deducing this must be a coffin cake, covered in red velvet icing.

"Count Dracula, I believe you're spoiling me," she teased.

"What can I say? I adore you," the vampire replied, grinning.

"You should try angel's food cake someday, its my favorite flavor."

Chuckling, Dracula cut her a slice and another one for himself. As he watched Elisa delicately take a bite of the cake, he felt something he had never felt in a long time since Martha died. He felt alive. "You know, I haven't had a date since my wife died," he admitted, sighing.

Elisa glanced up, baffled. "Really? You've never been with anyone other than Martha?"

Dracula nodded, noticing her reaction and grew concerned. "Does that bother you?"

"Oh, no! Not at all," Elisa immediately reassured him. "It's just that... my dad remarried long after my mom died."

Judging by the tone in her voice, Dracula noticed that something was wrong with Elisa, and it was not pretty. "What's wrong, is something bothering you?" he asked, concerned.

She remained silent for some moments as she thought about what she had heard and finally decided to be honest. "What you told us about back there, and how I kept getting this feeling we've met before... I think we have - when I was a little girl."

"What're you talking about?" Dracula raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"It a long story. I grew up in Sherman, Illinois with my family. We stayed in a motel at the Carpathian mountains for a vacation. When I was a kid, I went on a camping trip with my family and some friends of ours. After telling a scary story, I ventured into the forest to look for more fire wood and... I think you were there."

Dracula seemed confused, but interested in her story, so he waited hoping she will tell him the whole story.

* * *

 **1992**

Five year old Elisa, her long hair was shorter back then as a child and dressed in a white shirt underneath a blue dress, squatted closer to her mother as Nicholas concluded the end of his scary story, "...so you see they went in, but they were never heard from again. And on a night just like this, you can hear the ghostly wails of the lost travelers into the dark haunted forest! WAAAHHHOOOOOOHHH!"

The little girl screamed in mock-fright as he imitated his own creepy ghostly wail, but then everyone broke into a fit of laughter.

"Don't tell her those kind of stories. It will give her nightmares," interrupted a concerned Andrei Belmont, Elisa's father.

"Honey, it's not bothering them. It's all part of camping," assured Rosette, Elisa's pregnant mother. She was the most beautiful woman ever, with long wavy dark auburn hair that reached her waist and alluring hazel eyes. It was obvious Elisa inherited her mother's beauty and good heart, although the facial features were entirely different.

"What if one of them wakes up in the middle of the night, claiming to have seen some sort of monster, when in reality its just an owl or a raccoon?"

"Would you stop it already? You worry too much." Rosette handed him a smore, hoping it would get him to stop.

It did, and Andrei exchanged his other smore to his loving wife, smiling tenderly at her.

"So when's your birthday coming, Ellie?" asked Catarina.

"In a few months," replied Elisa. "And you know what I'm gonna wish for?" she whispered in her ear. "A zing!"

Unfortunately, Andrei had very good hearing to listen to his young daughter's birthday wish. "You need to stop filling your head with those ridiculous fairy tales, young lady. It gives you the wrong ideas about the world, when there are frightening things out there that will hurt you!" he lectured.

Rosette shook her head pitifully at her husband. "She knows that, but she's safe as long as her big strong father is there to protect her," she flirted, playfully flicking at his chin, "and those fairy tales give her a chance to dream and be a kid. Besides, what about us? I always thought we zinged."

Andrei gave his wife a small but stern smile. "I love you, Rosette, but it happened over time with dating years ago. What you call a zing isn't real, and Elisa is going to have to learn that in the real world soon."

Rosette was silent at this, hurt on the inside as there was once a time she thought her husband had been her zing, but off and on for years she wondered about her husband's true feelings. But if she didn't find her zing, at least her little girl can have that dream and hope for that future.

Andrei seemed to take notice of her feelings, immediately regretting his inexcusable words. "Honey, I didn't mean to upset you-"

"No, you're right." Hurt, Rosette left her seat and decided to sit next to Catarina.

"Who wants to hear another? I got plenty," Nicholas announced.

"I do, I do!" Elisa chirped excitedly.

"Okay, but first we need more firewood. The fire's getting weak here."

"I'll go get some," Elisa volunteered and ran to the edge of the darkening forest of their campsite.

"Don't wander too far!" Andrei called out to her.

Little Elisa began randomly picking up whatever sticks and branches she could easily carry, trying to get enough to keep the fire burning strong and bright enough to have fun telling scary stories and eating smores all night long.

Not noticing how deep she had wandering into the dark forest, she had lost sight of the campsite when something strange caught her eye, a shadowed figure seemed to move between the trees.

Thinking it must've been someone from the campsite, she called out, "Daddy, is that you? I was getting firewood."

But there was no answer.

"I'll just get some more and then I'll go back."

The shadow made it's way deeper into the forest with a faint whoosh of air.

"I don't know who's there, but leave me alone... please?"

She followed the shadow deeper into the forest as it seemed to try to lead her somewhere or was trying to avoid her, and it lead her into a strange and scary place; a dark heavily misted graveyard in the middle of the forest. Elisa couldn't help but wonder why it was here, as she only knew of the one by the town church.

Suddenly, a mysterious blue and pale spectral spirit appeared behind her. It bore the shape of a woman, but with no face except for two gleaming white eyes. Elisa stared at the ghost, her eyes widened. "A ghost!" she exclaimed in a whisper. At first, she was scared. However, the ghost beckoned her to follow her deeper inside the graveyard. It made no malicious wails like Nicholas told in his story, making soothe and gentle breathing sounds as the spirit glided further inside the graveyard. Confused, although frightened, Elisa's curiosity got the better of her as she trailed after the ghost, venturing deeper inside the graveyard.

Then, Elisa saw in the distance the shadow of a large building with a bridge going to it, like a big old fashioned castle from a fairy tale. The mystery ghost gestured her arm out to the castle. Elisa wondered why this ghost would lead her to this dismal place. She began to make her way to the castle, ever curious as to what kind of castle it was, how it got there, and mostly who lived there. But then she looked up and saw something flying over the graveyard. At first she thought it was a strange looking bird, but as it got closer it was really a big black bat. It came closer to her, it's eyes glowing a menacing red and screeched as it flew over their heads as if to attack. The child gave a startle wail. Elisa tried to whack the bat away, tripping over one of the smaller gravestones as her head came in contact with the bat, the impact forcing it to fall back and over one of the fallen gravestones.

The next thing Elisa knew, she fell to the ground at the same time she heard a heavier thump on the ground like someone else had fallen. As she got up and brushed herself off, Elisa looked up and gasped to see a dark man get up from the ground, groaning while rubbing his head as though he had hit it on something. He was very tall and wore all black old looking clothes, and he glowered at the child with a malicious scowl, his eyes glowing a threatening scarlet red.

Panicking, Elisa cried out and raced out of the graveyard, running like her very life depended on it. She didn't run in the direction of the campsite, she ran in the other direction. She pushed through the reeds, leapt over a trunk and dodged a low branch. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the man's figure advancing on her trail. He proved to be much faster than the average human, and that frightened her the most. But she didn't paid attention in which direction she had run to, yet she didn't care, she wanted to get out of the forest as quickly as she could. Elisa didn't feel the ground disappear beneath her feet until gravity took her by force.

The man witnessed this unexpected turn of events, and his face paled in horror. He immediately took action and flew to her rescue. His arms wrapped around her tiny waist. Elisa's eyes squeezed shut, grappling his arms for safety, as her savior carried her back to the top of the cliff. As soon as he landed elegantly on the solid earth, the vampire carefully placed the little girl down.

Elisa slowly opened her eyes and got her first good look at her savior in the moon's light. He was dressed in a black tuxedo, his dark hair perfectly slicked back, and a black cape tied around his neck. His face was long and pointy, but very attractive features. His eyes a crystalline blue, though they held a displeased scowl. He was Count Dracula.

"What are you doing here?! You're not supposed to be here!" he hissed, the voice a strong Romanian accent.

"I'm sorry. Was it your graveyard?" Elisa lowered her head shamefully.

"Yes!" he snarled. "You are on my land, and you are trespassing!"

"I'm sorry, I was only trying to get more firewood," Elisa apologized rapidly. "I found your graveyard and... and..." She began to tear up when she realized something else scary – she was lost.

Dracula had a look of fear on his face as he listened this little girl's explanation, and thought of erasing her memories with his powers, but his face softened when he saw her tear up. He asked gently, "Are you lost, little girl?"

A tear escaped from her eye as she wept, "Yeah, I think I am. I don't know how to find my way back to the campsite."

Dracula approached her and extended out a hand with rather long fingers to her, saying gently, "Take my hand, I'll take you back. I'm sorry I frightened you."

"But my parents told me never to talk to strangers," she added.

"That's what I tell my daughter." Dracula smiled. "I saved your life. I won't be a stranger if you don't let me help you."

With no other choice, Elisa took his hand, and it felt cold for some reason, but she didn't care. This man was being nice enough to take her back. She was glad this was nothing like Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. He was are much friendlier than wolves. She looked up at the really tall man who held her hand. For some reason, she complimented on his eyes. "I like your eyes. I think they're the prettiest blue color I've ever seen."

Dracula looked down at her, surprised by what she said, but replied politely, "Thank you."

"And thank you for saving me, Mr. Stranger," squeaked Elisa, flashing an adorable grateful smile.

That smile tugged at Dracula's heartstrings so much that she reminded him of his daughter when she was a little girl. But he was confused to why she wasn't running away from him if she knew who he was. Nevertheless, he was touched thinking it felt amazing how this little human girl is not afraid of him.

A few minutes later, they heard a man's voice calling for Elisa and through the edge of the trees the beam of a flashlight could be seen, his voice colored with worry. Andrei and Nicholas noticed saw a tall man dressed in dark clothing and a cape emerge from the darkness with a little girl by his side.

When Andrei saw them he ran over, shouting, "Get away from my daughter!" He glared at the vampire with a familiar rage filled hate that Dracula recognized.

"Daddy, wait! He's my friend!" Elisa tried to stop him, but the next thing she knew, there was a red-eyed black bat flying away in the distance.

As Dracula flew away as a bat, Andrei rushed over to her to see if she was okay.

"Are you okay? Did that monster do anything to you?" He asked worryingly, checking her for bites or wounds.

"I'm fine, Daddy," she irately reassured him, pushing herself out of his arms. "And he's not a monster! He didn't do anything wrong, he was nice and he helped me."

Her father scowled. "Elisabeta Belmont, do you know what that thing is!" The child shook her head no. "That was a vampire, he could've sucked your blood or worse, kill you! I heard your screaming! Did he hurt you?"

Elisa was shocked, realizing this strange dark-clothed man who saved her life was a real vampire. But if he was going to hurt her why did he save her then? "No! He saved me from falling off a cliff."

But Andrei shook his head dismissively. "Maybe he only saved you so he could eat you. Now let's get out of here and back to the village before that THING decides to come back!"

Her father scooped her up and quickly carried her back to the campsite where everyone was packing up and leaving after the incident occurred. But as they made it back, Elisa looked up at the night sky with the full moon out. Despite what she been told of her savior, she wondered if she'll ever see him again.

* * *

"Now you understand why I have a fear of heights. As soon as we left the campsite, we packed up and drove back to the village," Elisa explained the finishing end of her story to a bewildered Dracula. "The doctor said I was going to be alright, since I'm not in shock. He assumed my dad and Nicholas were talking nonsense about vampires. When I tried to tell them about the ghost, no one believed me. Afterword, my little sister was born... but, my mother died in childbirth..."

Her voice choked up and tears escaped from her eyes, knowing how the story ended. "Ever since that night, my dad felt guilty for the last thing he did was lecture my mother about the non-existence of zing. But my father started to become overprotective and micromanage everything in my life. Some years later, he married my school teacher, whom I never liked. Everyone shared his concept that a zing doesn't exist, including my stepmother and this rich boy named Corbin who took a liking to me, but he was a constant liar and a trickster. What I didn't tell anybody else is my secret; I can communicate with ghosts." This made Dracula's eyes widen. "I wasn't afraid of them. I liked them. Well, as soon as I graduated from high school, Corbin tried to ask me to marry him, but I knew how much trouble he is, so I refused. I had a big fight with my family over rejecting him. Nobody believed me about his lies. I told my dad that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with a... a real monster. And then... my family tried to have me sent to a... a mental institution because Corbin discovered my secret. He made me look like a lunatic. So I gave them the slip before they could take me away and I left Illinois, moved to Transylvania and stayed at the Bats in the Belfry in the Transylvanian village, where Nicholas and Catarina Muller took me in. They're old friends of the our family."

Dracula was silent as he listened to her story, stunned by what she was saying. He grew fascinated that a human could actually speak to the dead, but his fascination changed to horror and anger over her family's betrayal. A memory slowly came to his mind. "I do remember that night," he said. "But believe me when I say this, I didn't plan to hurt anyone," he explained. "I was alarmed of humans camping close to my hotel. I thought of playing a little joke to scare them off, but it didn't go as planned when I met you. You reminded me of Mavis when I saw the danger you were in. I'm glad to have saved your life, but I wasn't expecting a hostile gratitude by your father."

"Sorry about how he treated you," she said. "You were right. Humans really are the true monsters in this world. Look at how we treat each other just because we're different."

He gently placed an arm around her shoulders. "It's alright. I know you and Johnny, even your mother, are good humans." The vampire's expression scorned slightly. "How can humans treat you so cruelly when you have such an interesting gift. You're family deserves to be punished for what they have done. I could've sucked every ounce of blood from their bodies until they're dead!" He noticed her staring at him in amused horror, embarrassing himself. "Uhh, I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's alright. Thank you." Elisa leaned in to kiss his cheek, but the second Dracula turned his head, she accidently pressed her lips over his mouth.

The two separated. Dracula pulled his cape over half of his face, looking horrified. Elisa placed a hand over her mouth, gasping.

"I'm so sorry, I was going for your cheek..." she tried to explain but it seemed to no avail.

His cape shielding half his face, Dracula looked away with his eyes clenched shut, as if conjecturing what to say or do. Thoughts raced through his mind over his conflicting emotions for this human girl that captured his undead heart. Then, he made his decision. He marched toward her, gazing into her eyes. Thinking he intended to do something harmful, Elisa got up from her seat and made an attempt to run for the door, only to be caught by the arm from his strong grasp.

"Don't apologize," he muttered. "Please, stay."

He turned her around to force her to look at him. Brushing a strand of hair out of her face, Dracula cupped her cheek with one hand and, to Elisa's surprise, locked his lips against her's. At first she didn't know what had happened or what to do, but she caved in and slid her arms around Dracula and returned the kiss passionately and deeply.


	16. Birthday Disaster

The big night had arrived. It was Mavis's sweet 118th birthday. Even though most of the guests were not pleased at waking up this early in the night, such as poor Wayne for instance.

Elsewhere, Mavis tried to decided what to wear to her party, but she had the same dresses and capes in her wardrobe, until she got an idea. Taking all her extra capes she had, she quickly made herself a cape similar to her dad's, though at one point she had to turn into a bat to get some thread through a needle. Then she pulled out a pinkly wrapped coffin present where a beautiful red dress was kept in. Mavis chuckled happily at how successful she was as she twirled around with her new cape and red gown on.

The rest of hotel soon became alive with a frenzy as monsters began to get ready, such as Griffin shaving his face, combing his invisible hair, and damping white powder on his butt. "Oh yeah!" he said. "Perfecto!"

After Mavis had left her room, Dracula came in as blue mist and discretely placed an old present on Mavis's bed, getting wide eyed as he did so, and then quickly left. It was the present from Martha he told her about the other night that was meant to be opened only on Mavis' 118th birthday, and that time had now arrived.

In her room, Elisa awoke as she pulled the soft blanket closer to her skin and sat up slowly to find her witch's costume on the chair folded neatly. She looked to her side to see it empty save for a letter on top of a wrapped box. The letter was from Dracula saying he was sorry he had to go as there was a party to prepare for and he wanted her to wear what was in the box as he had it made for her. When Elisa opened it what she saw took her breath away, as it was a beautiful new witch's dress for her to wear to the party.

The ballroom was booming with the Drac Pack's newly rewritten song for the party, with an electro dance mix to it.

 _"Girl! I can't believe it's your big night! You ate the frog now the party's so right!"_ Frank sang.

A ghost table floated nearby with a group of Wayne's unruly pups rocking out to the music, but Winnie was so annoyed by this she beat her brothers off the table and finally danced alone while still sucking her binkie.

 _"Girl! You used to suck a binkie, look at ya now! Sucking blood right outta the cow!"_ Murray sang as Johnny and the audience jammed out to the music.

It was then Johnny noticed Mavis, the girl of the hour, the Birthday Girl herself, finally arrived in a flowing violet mist to then elegantly resume her true form and looked at Johnny with a smile. The red gown she wore was a sleeveless dress, although she still kept the fingerless lace gloves on, and a black choker around her neck with a fuchsia stone in its center. Red tights with black heels could be slightly seen on her feet when she made her appearance. And the second piece of clothing she wore was her newly made vampire cape.

"Wow! You look beautiful," Johnny gasped, awestruck at her new appearance.

"Thanks," she said bashfully. "Thanks for the party."

"Oh, yeah," Johnny smiled. "You like my little touches?"

Glowing brightly in different flamboyant colors, thousands of little fireflies flew in patterns forming images of places Johnny had been, dazzling Mavis at what the world had to offer: Paris, New York City, Moscow, even Hawaii, though beneath it was spelled Haweewee.

"It's… amazing," she said awestruck at what Johnny's birthday present to was.

Then Mavis got a mischievous look in her eyes. She let herself fall back as Johnny tried to catch her, but she turned into mist and pulled him further onto the dance floor and began to dance enthusiastically with him when she resumed her real form.

Elsewhere, Dracula had arrived, proudly overseeing the party. Monsters all around were congratulating him on the success of the party.

"Terrific party."

"You really outdid yourself, Drac."

"Gotta be the best one I've been to in 500 years!"

While he smiled and basked in the praise, Dracula felt a small bit of disappointment because the person he hoped to see wasn't there yet. Monsters continued to praise him, until his wide blue eyes caught sight of who he was hoping to see.

Once more Elisa received some wolf whistles and cat calls from various monsters, but who she was looking for appeared before her in a flash of blue mist.

"Elisa, you're here! And you look so beautiful." Dracula greeted her excitedly, as he looked her up and down.

While her face and skin had been retouched with green makeup to make her appear green, the dress she wore was off the shoulders with long sleeves, while a ruby jeweled necklace sparkled around her neck, and her chocolate brown hair was done up in an elegant low ponytail and she wore her black pointed hat.

"Thanks," she replied shyly. "Thank you for the dress. It's beautiful."

Dracula chuckled as he held out an arm for her to take, like an old fashion gentleman which she took as he escorted her to the dance floor and they were then flanked by two security suits of armor guards.

Holding out his hand, he beckoned her to dance with him. At first, Elisa was shy about it, but Dracula smiled at her with insistence. She took his hand and he guided her to the middle of the dance floor. Some nearby partying monsters, mostly Hank and Pedro, were watching them and cheering them on. Wendy jumped for joy at encouragement.

Elisa felt her confidence come out when she started dancing the tango with Count Dracula. But she pulled away when her wild side came out. She would take one step, raise her arms, flip her hair, slide side-to-side, and swayed her hips. It was so much fun, she had completely forgotten about Dracula staring at her with his mouth open. He chuckled at her dance moves, finding it amusing, and attempted to copy her movements.

On the other side of the dance floor, Johnny and Mavis were enjoying their own dance together when Johnny momentarily bumped into the large foot of Bigfoot, who growled in annoyance, but Johnny quickly apologized, "Sorry, Big Man."

Then time seemed to slow down between them when Mavis stopped and smiled at him. Their eyes locked as she gazed at him in a love struck gaze and Johnny stared in awe into her soft blue eyes.

Dracula bounced his head in rhythm to the excited pounding dance music. As monsters opened a space to let him through, the world's most famous vampire then leaped on the dance floor to bust some moves in a break dance spin and a Russian style dance upside down, as his cape came alive to boogie off to the side. Everyone cheered, even Elisa while she laughed. Dracula did a ta-da pose before breaking into dancing again.

Elisa began dancing beside him again, while she teased, "You're a good dancer, but you're such a show off."

"It's what I do," he teased back and continued to dance with her.

Meanwhile, Mavis steadily leaned in closer... and closer... Johnny back up a little.

"Uh, Mavis? I'm crazily scared right now," he mumbled.

"Maybe that's a good thing," she insisted lovingly, as she closed her eyes and began to close the gap between them.

Dracula and Elisa were having the time of their lives together, but then Dracula stopped dancing when one of the guards tapped him on his shoulder and pointed in Mavis and Johnny's direction.

In the center of the dance floor, there was Mavis and Johnny... in the middle of an innocent kiss.

Dracula's face dropped in horror at what he saw, and his heart felt like it had been ripped from his chest. There came a lightning strike from somewhere and Dracula was gone from Elisa. She noticed he had disappeared half a second later. At that same moment, she caught sight of Mavis and Johnny... still locked in a kiss. Shocked, Elisa immediately understood why Dracula left her. "Uh, oh."

In a second, an enraged Dracula got through the crowd easily as he zigzagged through them in a trial of blue mist. He separated the two teenagers with a look of murderous rage on his face as he stared down at Johnny in betrayal, who had a look of fear on his own face.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Dracula snarled, furiously. "AFTER I SHARED MY PAIN WITH YOU?!"

"But… no…" Johnny stammered, frightened.

"Dad, it was just a kiss," Mavis explained.

"No! You're not allowed to kiss!" Dracula shouted, harshly shutting her down.

After struggling to make her way through the crowd, Elisa immediately came between the angry vampire and his hurt daughter. "So, you and I _can_ kiss, but Mavis and Johnny _can't?!_ " she questioned, almost sarcastically.

"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!" Dracula exclaimed, severely blowing her off which seemed to frighten Elisa.

"Dad, I'm allowed to do things," Mavis interrupted to argue with her father. "I'm not 83 anymore. I'm allowed to like people or go see the world again."

Dracula was shocked by these words, as he grabbed Mavis by her shoulders. "WHAT?! You saw it, y-you said you didn't like it!"

"Maybe I want to give the village another chance. Just like Elisa said, it's not too late for second chances," she said. "I just need to learn, you know; how to roll with it like Johnny does."

"No, no!" Dracula fearfully tried to dissuade his daughter. "You can't go to the village again!"

"Maybe you can make them see that we can be friends."

"No, that isn't possible!"

"Well you can't be sure. It's all in how you present yourself!"

"NO! That won't make a difference!"

"How do you know?"

"Because it just won't!"

"WHY? Why _won't_ it?!

"BECAUSE THAT VILLAGE DOESN'T REALLY EXSIST!"

And a half moment too late he realized what he had said because the next thing he knew, save for the flashing party ambiance, the music stopped and everyone ceased dancing. Everyone, including Mavis, was in a state of shock. The snapping of one of Frank's guitar strings was heard.

"What do you mean... doesn't exist?" Mavis asked, hurt and confusion in her voice.

"What did you do?!" Frank demanded accusingly, while he and all of Dracula's friends and Mavis's friends gathered around with faces of disgust or confusion.

"I… I did what I had to do," Dracula responded defiantly while he crossed his arms.

"What was it?" Mavis asked her father, obviously suspicious. "What exactly did you have to do? TELL ME!"

Her anger showed strong at the last two words, causing to Dracula flinch and have a look of guilt on his face. The same guilt after Elisa praised him for trusting his daughter, not knowing he betrayed her trust by lying to her.

"I... I built the town," Dracula hesitated, before he confessed. "The staff put it all together, the… the zombies dressed up as the townspeople."

Two nearby zombie bellhops groaned in admittance, "Uh-huh."

"Please! I…" Dracula pleaded to Mavis as she turned her back on him, heart-broken and shocked by what she had been told as everything sank it. "If you really went out there and something happened to you, I... I... I just couldn't live with myself!"

"But you can live with this?!" Mavis accused him as she turned to face him, hurt and angry. "Lying to me; tricking me?! Keeping me here forever when you knew my dream was to go?! Ellie was right. I should have left you long ago."

"WHAT?!" Dracula yelled, outraged at Elisa, who looked back at him with her own disappointment. "You dare tell her THAT?!" he yelled.

"Yes," Elisa responded in a low tone before she raised her voice in fury, "because I knew you were as bad as my father!"

"Because I had to keep a promise I made to Martha to keep our baby girl safe forever!" Dracula retorted, defensively. "You wouldn't understand!"

Before anyone knew it, Elisa slapped him in the face so hard a red mark began to form on his pale face, causing everyone in the crowd to gasp, startled by her actions. "Would Martha be proud of you right now? Do you think she would have wanted you to lie to her child?!"

Dracula didn't answer her. Her words cut him deep. It hurt him far worse than the slap he received.

"She'd look at you the way we ALL see you right now!" Elisa continued, still furious. "You're not keeping her safe, you're keeping her a prisoner in her own home; and a home is the worst kind of prison there is!"

A saddened Dracula opened his mouth to say something in his defense, but the next moment there came a loud groaning. It was the still frozen chef, Quasimodo, being rolled into the ballroom in a wheelbarrow by his pet rat, Esmeralda.

"Liar! Liar!" Quasimodo tried to say in a muffled voice.

Almost as if his face could say 'uh-oh,' Dracula hunched into himself, as though guilty of something besides his deception to Mavis.

"Oil?" Murray guessed.

Elisa gently took Johnny by the shoulder and they tried to sneak through the crow of monsters, knowing all too well why the psychotic chef was there.

"Uh-uh! Uh-uh!" Quasimodo continued to say gibberish in a muffled voice.

"English, please." Eunice groaned. "Your voice is really annoying."

"Wait, I speak frozen," said the Fly, while he flew up to the petrified chef to translate. "He says Dracula has brought humans into the hotel."

The crowd gave an applauded gasp, not believing what they were hearing. A gremlin couple held each other in fear.

Johnny and Elisa were near the door, momentarily thinking they were home free when Quasimodo muffled again and the Fly translated, "He says, 'There is ze humans.' He has a French accent."

Just as they were about to step out the door, it was shut on them by Esmeralda, who growled at them. Elisa and Johnny gasped, as did Dracula in shock. Then the entire crowd gasped in shock at the accused suspects, both of them fearfully looking back at the crowd.

"Johnny and Elisa aren't humans," Frank said in doubt and defense of them, not noticing his vampire friend slinking behind his own cape in deep fear. "He's my right arm's cousin, and Ellie's a witch. He's lying." Frank leaned in close enough to be nose to nose with Quasimodo at those last two words.

"Yeah," agree Griffin. "And why is he picking his nose?"

The chef muffled again and the Fly translated, "He said 'It's a long story.'"

"Hey, wait!" Johnny cried as Esmeralda started crawling all over him, licking the make up off his face and ruining his hairstyle. "No! Get off me! Oh, Ew!"

"Ew! Get away from me!" Elisa cried, as she tried to get Esmeralda, who suddenly jumped onto her face, off her face and licked her make up off her face, and messed up her hair in the process. "Pfft, blegh! Rat fur!"

Both of them now had their make up so badly smeared and licked off by the rat, their real skin tones shone through, while Johnny's hair was still unruly but no long stood straight up. Both of their covers have been completely exposed.

The rat squeaked loudly to get everyone's attention. Quasimodo muffled smugly as the Fly translated, "He says 'Behold ze humans.'"

Pandemonium broke out. Every monster in the room started to panic. There was screaming and the monsters became rampant, running around the room as if their lives were in danger.

"I don't believe it." Frank gasped, horrified.

Elisa tried to calm everyone down to no avail, "Wait, we won't hurt you! We're your friends, remember?!"

But in the chaos, someone ran into her hard enough that she didn't notice her necklace had come off and it got kicked around by the panicking monsters.

"Elisa, I...I'm sorry..." she heard a familiar Romanian accented voice speak her name when she turned to see Dracula come closer to her and tried to embrace her, but she backed up and shoved him away from so hard, more hurt and angry than Mavis.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU _MONSTER_!" she snapped, glaring at him. "Dad was right. Vampires are evil, and _you_ are the worst of all!"

She ran through the crowd and slammed the door, not seeing the face of devastation and shame on Dracula's face.

Meanwhile, Mavis steadily walked up to an exposed and regretful Johnny, a look of disappointment on her beautiful pale face.

"Is it true?" she asked sadly. "Are you a human?"

"Yeeeessss," he admitted guiltily. "I'm so sorry." Johnny couldn't look at her, certain she hated him, if not for being human then for lying to her.

But the next thing he knew, Mavis embraced him lovingly in a hug, exclaiming, "I don't care! I still want to be with you."

Johnny sighed in relief, happy that Mavis still accepted him, maybe even forgave him for lying. He wanted to hug her back when he saw Dracula, a still shadow among the panicking monsters, with a deeply saddened and devastated face. His face told him to do the right thing. He had lost Elisa, and he could lose Mavis. Remembering what he had told Dracula earlier right he was told about Martha's demise, Johnny didn't want to do this, but he had to, out of respect, and mostly fear, for his new vampire friend.

"Uh… Well, TOUGH!" he exclaimed as he forcibly pulled Mavis's embrace off him. "Cause I don't want to be with you, because… you're a monster! And I HATE monsters!"

Mavis gasped quietly at those harsh words, clearly hurt by his sudden rejection as she watched him go to the door.

"GOODBYE!" Johnny growled coldly and he scared Murray with a Bruce Lee kick.

Murray coiled away, begging, "Please, don't hurt me!"

Johnny gave Mavis one last stare of hatred and heartbreak before he left through the door with another loud slam.

Mavis stared on in silence for a long moment, as Dracula slowly came up to her to comfort her. But before he could put his hand onto her shoulder, Mavis angrily wheeled around and faced him.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Then she turned into a bat and flew away, leaving behind a trail of violet mist.

The crowd of monsters began to leave, several of them voiced their disappointment, as they were all angry and felt betrayed with Dracula for his actions and his lies.

"We're getting out of here!"

"I thought I smelled humans."

"Mavis is right. This is all Dracula's fault!"

"I'm never coming back here again."

"'Human free'? What a rip off!"

Even Dracula's friends were disappointed in him, going with the crowd and giving him dirty looks at they left, but Dracula was oblivious to them. He continued to look up with a saddened shameful face in the direction Mavis had flown off to.

Long minutes passed and he didn't move again until he was completely alone in the ball room by the sound of another loud door slam. Head hanging low, he began to walk away when a red sparkle caught his eye. He slowly made his way to see what it was and pick up the gleaming object.

It was the ruby necklace he had given to Elisa to wear for the party. Suddenly overwhelmed with such guilt and loneliness, he fell to his knees on the spot. Mavis was right. Everyone was right. This was all his fault.


	17. Zing!

The hotel had gone dead and quiet after the party had abruptly ended. The pool yard was empty. The ballroom was empty. Not a sound to be heard, except for the Day of the Dead band playing a melancholy tune.

Approaching Mavis's bedroom, Dracula was greeted by a hostile shrunken head, having learned of the events that occurred.

"Oh, here he comes! Count Crocula! I'm just glad my eyes are shut, cause I don't even want to..." her mouth was zipped shut by Dracula's magic.

He knocked on the door, but received no answer.

"Mavis, honey, are you in there?" he asked before opening the door.

Her room was dark and there was no sigh of its occupant.

Dracula started to panic. "Mavis? Mavis?" he called, but then he saw the open window. Fearing the worst, Dracula turned into a bat and flew out, calling, "Mavis, where are you? Mavis?!"

He looked around desperately until he spotted his heartbroken daughter sitting on the roof with her legs curled up to her chest and her head on her knees. Dracula landed on the roof turning back to normal, hesitating before he glided down the roof and sat next to her.

Father and daughter sat in awkward silence for a while.

"Dad, can you do me a favor?" Mavis asked quietly, breaking the silence.

"Yes, yes. Of course, darling. Anything," replied Dracula, eager to earn his daughter's forgiveness.

"Will you erase my mind?"

Dracula stared at his daughter, shocked at this sudden request. He would have wanted to forget Elisa rejecting him as well, but the memories of their time together meant so much to him and he didn't want the same thing happening to his daughter. "No, no, no, no. No, I won't do that. There's too much I want you to remember."

Mavis buried her tear-stricken face on her knees. "You were tight, Dad. The humans hate us."

"Sweetheart, there are so many eligible monsters out there," Dracula explained, trying to calm the situation. "You're so young to..." he stopped when he noticed she was holding a book after moving her head back up. "What is it? What are you reading?"

Mavis handed him the book, and Dracula realized it was Martha's birthday present for their daughter, the one he had left on Mavis's bed before heading to the party.

 _True Love, by Mom_

 _For your 118th Birthday_

He opened the book and flipped through the pages to read it.

 _Two lonely bats crashed in the night_

 _They felt a Zing, love at first sight_

 _They knew right then, they would be husband and wife_

 _For a Zing only happens once in your life_

 _Your Zing will come, my love_

 _Cherish it_

 _Love, Mommy_

Dracula stared at the words in the book, shocked and speechless by what he recently read.

"I thought we zinged, Dad," Mavis confessed to her father in tears.

"You and Johnny?" Dracula gasped in surprise as he held the book close to his chest, realizing he and Elisa weren't the only ones to zing.

"I guess it was only me," Mavis replied, sadly. "But you should be happy, Dad. Now there's no reason for me to leave. I have no more dreams. I'm just like you now."

Dracula watched his heartbroken daughter fly away as a bat back to her own room. He sat alone on his hotel roof with sadness and shame weighing heavily on his heart. For some brief moments his thoughts haunted him about everything that had happened those past few nights.

What Mavis told him, how she was just like him and she had no more dreams, it stung his heart and his guilty conscience, adding more pain and burden. However, this is what he wanted to hear, that there is no reason for her to leave the hotel, which meant his baby girl will be safe forever, just as he promised his late wife so many years ago. But the way Mavis said it, after she told him how she thought she had zinged with Johnny and the book he held close to his chest, it all made him think she meant how alone he was, how he never wanted to go out and see if the world had changed at all because it reminded him too much of his own pain over losing Martha. But, he felt a different pain of loss as though he still lost Mavis in the way he hurt her with his lies, and in turn he hurt Elisa, Johnny, his friends, and even those he swore to protect within the sanctuary of his hotel.

This book he held, True Love; it wasn't just about how he and Martha first met, somehow he felt it was also about letting others in your life. He didn't spend much time remembering what his life was like before he ever met Martha, for he knew that was really when his long immortal life began. Now he could image his life without Elisa. How he felt about her. The love they shared yesterday while he traced his fingers over his lips, remembering the warmth of her lips against his own from her accidental kiss.

Dracula truly felt more alone than ever, even if Mavis never left the hotel again for the rest of eternity. As he thought about how he hurt not only Mavis, but Elisa and Johnny, he realized he especially hurt his closest friends and the other monsters in his hotel. No one will ever come here again because of the appearance of humans at the hotel, and in a real sense that was true, but he realized no one will come back to the hotel because the monsters didn't trust him anymore. Not only had he had lied to his own daughter... he had lied to everyone, and his actions had lured two humans to his sanctuary. He couldn't decide which was worse.

A gust of wind blew away a piece of paper which caught Dracula's eyes. He watched it blow away for some long moments, and it was almost out of reach, but swiftly he caught it and knew right away what it was; his old post card from Hawaii.

The Count looked at it sadly, seeing it as fleeting memory of what was, and a symbol of what could have been. Along with the book he still held, Mavis's present from her late mother about how she and Dracula first met and zinged together, and the old post card he held, Dracula began to have confusing thoughts.

It said 'a zing only happens once in your life,' but he and Elisa had zinged. How was that possible? Was it real? He felt something for Elisa, something a little different from how he felt for Martha, but a zing never lies. Did that mean he was betraying Martha in some way on how he felt for Elisa? Or maybe, just maybe, it was an incredible and rare thing to have a second zing.

The Count stared at the old post card for some moments longer while he thought about those last words Elisa shouted at him at the party earlier that night; how Martha would see him now for the way he tricked Mavis and lost his friends' trust. She surely would have hated him for what he had done.

Dracula took out Elisa's ruby necklace he found and held it close to his aching heart, muttered sadly, "Martha, what have I done?"

The sun began to rise over the mountainous horizon as a thought came to him and determination grew deep inside of him. Whatever it took, he will bring both Elisa and Johnny back.

* * *

Meanwhile in the dark forest, two humans walked in solemn silence together, both sharing the pain and heartache of rejection.

Elisa broke the silence in a tone of distaste, "We'll make our way to the road and then we can take a cab to the tavern."

"Sure," Johnny replied, dryly.

Elisa looked at him with concern and pity, for neither of them wanted to leave though she couldn't stay any longer after she discovered all the lies that… _monster_ had told her and his own daughter. Maybe he even lied to her about how he felt and only wanted to… She didn't even want to think about what occurred yesterday.

"You didn't have to leave. I know I had to, but why did you, Johnny?" she asked.

Johnny was silent for a brief moment until he answered, "I didn't want to come between them, you know, because they're a family. I told Drac that the last thing I wanted was to hurt him or Mavis." What he didn't mention we he also feared Dracula would keep his threat of sucking out all of Johnny's blood too.

"I was just as angry as the other monsters were for lying to Mavis... and me," sighed Elisa. "So. what'll you do now?"

"I'm thinking about going home. I've seen enough of the world," Johnny replied, melancholy. "It doesn't seem worth seeing any more."

Elisa placed a hand gently on his shoulder in support, and gave a small understanding smile. She quickly wrote down her cell phone number and gave it to Johnny when they finally got to the rode and an old 1986 Fiat cab drove up them, as though by fate.

"I hope we can still keep in touch after you leave," she said.

"Thanks for everything," he said as they got into the cab, "I'll call you when I can."

They made it back to the Bats in the Belfry Tavern and Inn at the edge of town, Elisa invited Johnny inside for one last meal before he went to the airport and back to America. However, upon entering the inn, the two of them found an angry and eerily calm Nicholas standing before them with his arms folded.

"Ah, you're back," he greeted in a dry tone. "I'm surprised you made it through the past two nights out in the forest..." he raised his tone in a louder bellow, "AGAINST MY WISHES!"

"So, where have you two been?" Catarina asked, sourly.

"In the woods, camping... I'm sorry, I-" Elisa replied, softly.

Noticing how sullen the two appeared, Nicholas and Catarina exchanged concerned looks.

"Is everything alright?" Catarina asked, gently. "What happened?"

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Johnny said.

"Still, I can't believe you, Elisabeta Belmont! I give you one simple rule to follow and you just go ahead and break it!" Nicholas scolded, raising his voice angrily. "I'm sorry, but you've given me no choice - you're fired!"

Elisa stared at her boss, not sure if she heard him right. "Wha-? No! Look Nick, I'm sorry we ventured into the dark forest even after you forbade us, but we're fine and here now doesn't that matter!" She tried to explain herself.

"But if you had listened to me, you wouldn't be in this mess." Nicholas refused to listen, still fuming. "Go pack your things!"

Hurt, Elisa walked upstairs to her room and started packing up her things. As she started to mourn, knowing she was going to miss being at the Bats in the Belfry, she heard Nicholas talking to Catarina and she couldn't help but listen to what they're talking about.

"I can't believe you fired her!" Catarina scolded her husband. "She has always done a good job around here. You shouldn't have been that hard on her just because she disobeyed one rule!"

"I know, but this might be a good reason!" Nicholas agreed with his wife.

"But if you agree with me, then why did you fire her?" Catarina was surprised to hear this.

Even Elisa was surprised when she overheard this.

Nicholas sighed, almost as if in remorse, "Because I think it's time she patched things up with her family. She hasn't talked to them in years ever since their falling out over this ghost incident."

"I do remember, and because of that incident, that is why she ended up working and living here in the first place!" Catarina reminded him.

"I know, but look... Now that she doesn't have a job or a place to live, she'll have no choice but go back to Illinois and live with her family. Hopefully, they'll talk and work things out. I know you've seen all the letters that her father sent her, but she hasn't responded back to them," Nicholas sincerely told her, trying to make her understand why he's doing this.

"Of course." Catarina nodding in understanding.

Elisa scowled, her fists tightening when she realized the true meaning of her former boss kicking her out. There was no way she would go back to Illinois. But, there is another place she can go to - Pennsylvania. A childhood friend of hers lived there, and Elisa hoped she could help out.

"My flight's heading for California," reminded Johnny, poking his head in to check up on her.

"Then I'll take the first flight to California, and then I'll take the next one to Pennsylvania," Elisa decided.

Once arrangements had been made, Elisa was allowed to eat her last meal in the Bats in the Belfry, while Johnny was given eggs with sausage for breakfast to eat by Catarina.

* * *

That same early morning back at Hotel Transylvania, the lobby was all a bustle with enraged monster guests and staff trying to be the first to check out, all of them shouting in anger and outraged about the events from last night.

"Bill! Bill!" shouted a pink Gillman, his eyes going wide as a zombie bellhop showed it to him, then shouted, "That's not MY bill!"

"Take my key! Take my key!" shouted a gargoyle, while Marty the palest Gillman blubbered loudly and all the other monsters continued shouting.

"What's this mini-bar charge?" Wayne asked, confused as he looked at the hotel charge.

"Honey, the kids threw the mini-bar out the window," Wanda told him calmly.

"And that's our fault?"

"Well..."

"Excuse me! Pardon me!" called Murray, as he and Pedro pushed their way through the crowd to the reception desk with three large postal boxes. "Yeah, I've got a couple of people to express mail!"

"Friends! Please, stop!" a black bat called out as he flew into the lobby and over the reception desk.

"It's too late, Rat Bat!" Murray shouted negatively toward Dracula.

"Please!" the vampire pleaded as he resumed his real form. "I'm begging you! I need you to help me find Elisa and Johnny!"

"The HUMANS?!" Wayne yelled. "They could've killed us!"

Blobby uttered a strange sentence, to which an irritated Wendy had to translate, "My dad says you put us in danger when you brought in humans!"

"He touched my guitar!" Murray exclaimed, outraged.

"He put his hand in my mouth to see if it would disappear!" said Griffin, disgusted.

"I kissed her hand!" shouted a mad Gillman.

"I carried her on my shoulders!" hollered an upset Yeti.

"He let me eat his scooter!" yelled the old gremlin lady, and the crowd gasped in shock.

Overcome with guilt, Dracula slumped his broad shoulders and he announced shamefully to apologize to everyone he hurt, "I know I lied. I was wrong. But you have to believe this; Johnny and Elisa weren't the bad guys. The truth is I don't even know if humans are bad anymore."

The crowd went silent. Some of the monsters looked at each other in confusion and a few had sympathy for Dracula.

"Frank, c'mon, buddy," he pleaded, placing his hand on one of the three large boxes. "You understand."

"He's not talking to you," Eunice snapped irritated, muffled in her box. "First you tell us humans are bad, now they're good, what else? Up is down, cold is hot, gremlins don't smell."

"Hey!" yelled an insulted male gremlin as he held up his arms, oblivious to his own pit stains.

Frank popped his head, held by one of his hands, out of his box to speak, "I really liked Johnny. Cousin or no, he told fun stories."

Hank's own head popped out of the box, held by his own hand. "To tell you the truth, I really liked both Johnny and Ellie. They were a lot of fun."

"I think.. Johnny and Mavis… they zinged," Dracula admitted guiltily.

"They ZINGED?" Wayne and Wanda gasped together in surprise.

"But I got in the way," Dracula confessed.

"You only zing once in your life," Frank added tearfully, when he began to spark.

"Oye, now you're short circuiting," Eunice said brashly, right after she popped her own head out of her own box.

"I don't care!" Frank cried.

"Daaad!" groaned Hank, feeling embarrassed.

"I don't think so, Frank," Dracula added before wiping away a single tear he shed. "It's possible to zing more than once in your life. Me and Elisa, we zinged." This earned him plenty of gasps from the crowd. "But I pushed her away because I had been selfish..." He didn't need to say the rest. The expressions on everyone's faces showed they understood.

"Elisa was so nice. I really liked her," Wanda admitted softly.

"I liked her too." Eunice became more supportive, and she knew deep down she was fond of the human girl. "She had guts."

"So, what are we doing?" Griffin yelled excitedly. "Let's get Elisa and Johnny! C'mon!"

The rest of the gang supported their cheers to help Dracula bring his human friends back. The Count gave his big adorable smile that lit his pale face and further brightened his piercing blue eyes.

Dracula flew in a trail of blue mist as his friends followed quickly close behind him. Frank's upper torso bounced behind and mistakenly bounced on the two honeymooning flees, flattening them.

They popped back up and one of them chittered in irritation, "We should have honeymooned at your parents'!"


	18. The Chase to the Airport

The Drac Pack all squeezed into a hearse and drove crazily down the bridge. Wayne looked out a side window and let his tongue flap in the wind, like a happy dog going for a ride. The hearse exited the underground tunnel and entered into the haunted forest.

"Okay, so where am I going?" asked Griffin, as he drove the hearse through the haunted forest.

"The human world," Dracula replied with determination in his voice. "Before Ellie and Johnny are gone forever!"

But Murray remembered something important. "But what about the sun?"

Dracula looked outside, saw some bright sunlight through the heavy clouds and the shadows of the closely gathered trees. Murray had a point. "I don't know. I'll just have to roll." He repeated Johnny's words in determination.

"He just rolls," Wayne supported. "Rollability."

As they drove through the forest, Dracula explained his plan to the others, "So we follow their footprints, until they run out. That's where you come in, Wayne."

"Me?" the werewolf said surprised.

"There!" the vampire yelled as his sharp vision spotted something on the ground, an item he recognized very well. "Yes," he smiled widely. "I knew something would fall out of that backpack." He picked up the item; Johnny's dirty t-shirt, and sniffed it. He shouted in disgust, "Yeowch! That stinks!" He then took out Elisa's ruby necklace. "At least this one doesn't stick." Wayne then walked up to his vampire friend as he instructed the werewolf, "Work your magic!"

"Wait, you want me to track the smell?" he questioned. "No, no, no, my sniffing and tracking days are way behind me. Do you know how many diapers I've changed? How many number twos have destroyed this thing?" He pointed to his poor nose, then smiled as he said, "But..."

Wayne gave a high pitched whistle, inaudible to average ears, but audible to canine ears. The Drac Pack heard far off high pitched puppy howls that got closer and closer, until the ravaging pack of Wayne's pups were seen running through the forest.

The pups swarmed the area on a rampage while Dracula backed up. They were so out of control they shook at the hearse, one of them even tried to scare the Drac Pack inside by growling at them.

"Sit!" Wayne instructed, but none of them listened, even as he took the stinky shirt and the necklace from Dracula, and he commanded, "Smell. I said 'smell'!" Two of his pups started sniffing at his rear end, which annoyed Wayne a lot more. "Not me, the shirt and the necklace! The shirt and the necklace!"

"Do any of your kids still respect you!" Dracula questioned sarcastically.

"Mm, give me second." Wayne thought this over until it came to him. "Oh, yeah. Winnie! Front and center!"

The pack of wolf pups abruptly stopped their roughhousing to let Winnie, a little wolf girl wearing a pink tunic with a skull on it and sucking a binkie, through and stand in front of their dad, and resumed their play fighting. Winnie spat out her binkie and took a deep whiff of Johnny's t-shirt and then Elisa's necklace.

"They got into a car, an '86 Fiat," Winnie spoke, and then sniffed again. "It needs a little transmission work, but otherwise okay," she sniffed again as her dad and the vampire exchanged confused faces, "It drove to a tavern where she worked, and then drove through town to the airport, flight 497," she sniffed again, "8:00 AM departure."

"That's in fifteen minutes!" Dracula announced, worry in his eyes.

"Seat 23A and Seat 26A," Winnie continued and sniffed one last time. "He ordered the vegetarian meal. And she ordered a Chinese meal."

"Okay. Thank you, cutie," Dracula said sweetly to her and then strictly yelled to her brothers, "Now all of you, go back to your mother!"

The wolf pups did as they were told, including Winnie.

Swiftly Dracula returned to the hearse, and they drove off again, now entering the human forest with the sun's rays out. Dracula's friends grew worried for their friend, who was looking deeply worried himself.

"SHEEP!" Dracula shouted as he spotted a lone sheep blocking the road.

Griffin quickly turned the wheel in panic, narrowly avoided hitting the sheep. But the hearse drove far off the roar crashing down an unpaved steep hill. Somehow he managed to find the road again on a small mountain freeway, but not without Murray almost falling out and Frank had to pull the mummy back in.

"Whoo! High-Five!" Griffin cheered enthusiastically. "Don't leave me hanging."

The others screamed and freaked out when they spotted a whole flock of sheep up ahead and Dracula shouted, "LOTS OF SHEEP!"

"I got this one!" Wayne said excitedly.

The werewolf was out of the car in a flash as his friends watched in horrified expressions as Wayne devoured the whole herd in two seconds, and then got back in the hearse and belched a tuft of wool out.

"Ooh!" he breathed after his big 'meal.'

All of his friends, still kept their horrified faces at the road where the herd of sheep once stood, then turned and gave him disgusted glares.

"What?" Wayne acted like was nothing. "Now there's no sheep in the road. Let's go."

"That was pretty sick, man," Murray said bitterly, voicing the others' feelings.

"You eat lamb chops; it's the same thing!" Wayne replied in annoyance. "We don't have time for this! Come on, let's move it!"

They were off again and didn't get too far before seeing a familiar being walking down the road.

"Look, a human!" Griffin said, not quite sure what he was seeing.

The human, a man, turned around, and looked to be wearing a Dracula cape and a werewolf nose and big wolf ears. As the hearse drove past him, the man greeted them enthusiastically, "Welcome to Transylvania!"

Then he howled loudly, while the real monsters in the old hearse stared at him in confusion, not knowing what to think.

"That was trippy," Frank droned.

Another strange sight caught their attention as the human town finally came into view, the entrance had a large banner with bright green letters saying 'Welcome to the Monster Festival.'

"'Monster Festival?'" Wayne read. "What a 'Monster Festival'?"

As they drove deeper into town, all around the Drac Pack saw the town covered with strange banners for a celebration, some said 'We Love Dracula' or 'Count Dracula for President,' 'I Want My Mummy,' 'I Carry a Torch for Frankenstein,' or even 'Howling Mad for a Werewolf.'

"Did they know we were coming?" Murray questioned.

Soon the Drac Pack saw hundreds of humans dressed in outrageous and colorful costumes meant to be all sorts of monsters; witches, zombies, gargoyles, werewolves, even different versions of Dracula and Frankenstein. A lady dressed in her mummy costume walked past the hearse winking at Murray, who pressed his face against the glass with a big smile. All up and down the street were concession stands with varieties of carnival treats and drinks, and games, scattered rides, and the Drac Pack even saw a large inflated Frankenstein modeled balloon.

"They like us? Really?" Frank gasped, unable to believe what he and the others were seeing.

It was all too surreal. They all began to wonder what had changed to make humans like monsters this much instead of fearing and persecuting them.

Dracula then noticed a human dressed like him, not very well though, walking by and sipping from a drink. The real vampire called out to the fake one, "Excuse me, do you know the best way to the airport?"

"Yes, fellow Dracula," he said with a bad accent and pointed in one direction, "There's only one way, bleh, bleh-bleh."

It was the crowded street, the sign of the direction of the airport was on the corner; in fact all the streets were crowded with no room for the car to drive through worrying Dracula more.

"But it's all blocked," Dracula said worriedly, "We'll never make it in time."

"You should have left and hour earlier, bleh, bleh-bleh," said the fake Dracula as he walked off.

"I _do not_ say 'bleh, bleh-bleh'!" the real Dracula shouted in annoyance at him as he stuck his head out the window. Seeing little choice he said to his friends, "Alright, let's just run through it on foot!"

And he was out of the car and into the bright sunlight. His friends worried for him. Dracula tried to use his cape for protection against the sunlight, but it did little good as he was starting to steam lightly.

Frank grabbed a wide brimmed sun hat from a hat rack and put in on Dracula's head as he said, "Drac, this'll protect you!"

"Bleh, bleh-bleh," Dracula grumbled to himself, still annoyed by the fake one's saying it.

"Imagine if that knew he was talking to the real Drac," Frank said, "He'd run for the hills."

"Hold it now, hold it now!" Murray said as he got an idea, knowing their walking was going to take too long, "That sounds spot-on! But the only way they'd know the real us is if we show the real us."

"This could work," Dracula agreed.

"You mean, like, scare them?" Frank questioned, "We haven't scared people in centuries. I don't think I have it in me, anymore!" He tried to give a fierce roar or growl, but it just came out a pathetic weak grunt. He cleared his throat to try again, but was the same thing. "I got nothing, I really got nothing," Frank said in a tone of giving up.

"Let's just move this along," Griffin said casually as he lit a small match and held it up in Frank's line of vision.

This caused the golem to scream in fear and suddenly go into an almost monstrously induced rage as he stomped on large foot and cracked the pavement, and roared and shouted, "FIRE! FIRE BAD!"

The humans looked on in astonishment, even slightly fearful as Frank began climbing his inflated doppelganger to the shoulder and let out a loud, fearsome, deafening roar that echoed throughout the town, and made the whole crowd of humans cover their ears with how loud it was.

"It's Frankenstein's monster!" Nicholas gaped, having been in the crowd with his wife and his employees.

"Oh, my God!" A terrified Catarina fainted.

"Get him!" Nicholas ordered the crowd, ready to charge and attack the monster who he believed intended to harm them.

After the silence had passed, the crowd suddenly broke out in an impressive applause for Frank, the last thing the Drac Pack or Nicholas expected.

"I'm trying to SCARE you!" Frank shouted to the crowd below. "The REAL Frankenstein!"

"We know!" someone shouted from below, "We LOVE you!"

"Can you sign my torch?" yelled a Frankenstein fan girl while she held up a fake torch lovingly.

"What is wrong with you people?!" Nicholas demanded in disbelief. "He's a monster! He tried to scare you!"

"Who cares about that, old man?" another lady in the crowd dismissed his concern as if he were a nutcase. "We love monsters!"

Baffled, Nicholas and Catarina exchanged bewildered faces. How could these people celebrate and love monsters, after all their humanity had been through with monsters in the past centuries.

Surprised, Frank got another idea; if scaring the humans wasn't working, he'll try talking to them. "Listen, before anything else," he shouted. "Down there's the REAL Dracula."

"Prove it!" challenge a man standing near the vampire. Dracula's eyes glowed red and so did the man's eyes as his mind was taken over, and his beer mug was smashed into his head. "Alright, continue," the man was convinced now.

"Wait a minute. Aren't you the same vampire who attacked Elisa when she was a child?" Nicholas interrogated, scowling at the vampire like he was a criminal.

"I DIDN'T ATTACK ELISA WHEN I FIRST MET HER! I SAVED HER LIFE!" Dracula bellowed at the older man, clearly fed up with his unfair accusation from the past. "GET THAT THROUGH YOUR BRAIN ALREADY, MAN! CAN'T YOU LET IT GO!"

Nicholas stared at the vampire before him, utterly speechless.

"Drac and his daughter are in love with two people called Ellie and Johnny," Frank explained, "and he needs to get to the airport, but he can't get through this crowd."

"Why doesn't he fly?" asked one human with a Frankenstein mask.

"The sun, you idiot. He's a vampire," said another with a Dracula mask.

"That's right," Frank said. "Thank you, monster nerd. So, people, if you really are our friends, clear a path for the man!"

Then the fake Dracula seen earlier instructed loud and clear, "Okay, all Draculas, line up, bleh, bleh-bleh." A line of costumed Dracula humans formed down the street, and the fake Dracula continued, "Everyone else, lift the capes, protect our friend, bleh, bleh-bleh."

And like a wave, black costumed capes were lifted as a shield for Dracula against the harsh sunlight for an easy way to the airport. Dracula gazed in astonishment at this chance he was being given by humans; a race he had bitterly hated and avoided for a hundred and thirteen years.

"It's all for you, Buddy," Frank said in support with a smile. Dracula looked back at him in slight concern. Frank gestured for him to go on. "Go ahead."

"Go, Drac, go!, Go get 'em, Drac!, We love you, Drac, whew!" were some of the cheers the humans gave the vampire, his face lit up in a smile, flattered and touched by this kind gesture from his once hated enemies.

Not wasting another second, he ran at full speed down the path before him, the sun hat flying off, and the humans continued to cheer him, giving him the strength and encouragement he needed to succeed in bringing Elisa and Johnny back.

"Go, Drac! Go!"

"We love you, Dracula!"

In no time flat, he ran through the shade of some oversized bushes and trees to the edge of the runway just in time to see the plane his two human friends were on taking off. Using his clairvoyance ability, Dracula saw a heartbroken Johnny and morose Elisa in their separate seats. Johnny was listening to sad music from his iPhone. Elisa was silently reading a book.

"There's no choice," Dracula said to himself, before running out into the bright sunlight again. He changed into a bat and chased after the plane, giving a slight scream as he began to smoke and burn due to the sun's scorching heat.

Inside the plane, Johnny stared out the plane's window, not really seeing anything. A grim look of hurt and depression on his face as he listened to 'Helpless' by Peter Tvrznik on his earphones. He was going home, away from a wonderful girl he fell in love with, never to see again. But it was for the best, he understood that.

A few seats away, Elisa read a book about romance between a girl and a vampire. It made her think about Dracula so she put the book away in disgust. She would've thought about doing something on what to do to make herself happy, but there was nothing she could do to raise her spirits.

Outside a black bat struggled to catch up to the fleeting plane as it took to the air, feeling the painful burn from the sun, but he was bravely determined. Dracula got to the wheeled leg and grabbed hold of it as he resumed his true form, his skin and his clothes burned to a crisp.

"Ouch! Ouch, ouch, ouch!" he groaned, and then added, "Okay! Okay, I must do this!"

But the wheel was retracted unexpectedly into the plane. He yelled when he got thrown back into the backdraft, causing him to resume his bat form and flying as fast as he could to Johnny's window, where he grabbed hold of the window, his wings flapping in the powerful wind current.

The vampire bat struggled to get in view of the window and when he found Johnny, he yelled, "Jonathan! Jonathan, can you hear me?!"

But Johnny didn't hear him. Then something peculiar then caught the bat's eye, it was a scene from the Twilight movie about a handsome, sparkling boy vampire and a beautiful, curious human girl staring at him in emotional admiration.

"Tell me, do you dream of being a vampire?" the boy asked in a cheesy voice.

"This is how we're represented?" Dracula groaned. "Unbelievable." He tried to shout for Johnny's name again. "Jonathan! Jonathan, can you hear me?!"

Finally, the young man noticed him, "Whoa, bat!" Johnny responded in surprise until he saw the bat mouthing his name, "Wait, it's talking. Dracula, is that you?"

"Wait, what?" Elisa wasn't sure if she heard him right. "Dracula?" The young red-head gestured toward the window, where Elisa gasped at the familiar red-eyed bat in the window, pleading for her.

"Elisa! Darling, I am sorry!" Dracula yelled inaudibly through the window, but neither Johnny nor Elisa could hear him.

"Huh? Dracula, I can't understand you," Johnny said, muffled through the window.

"What?" Dracula was confused and couldn't understand what Johnny was saying. "My hand's in a tan shoe?"

"What?" yelled Johnny, not understanding the little bat's words. "Japan's eating lamb stew?"

Dracula slumped his tiny shoulders with an irritated expression. This wasn't working right. He needed a better way to communicate to them.

Johnny noticed something else was wrong as he examined the vampire bat's body. "Hey, do you know you're smoking?"

Concern grew inside Johnny and Elisa when Dracula got a determined look on his little bat face, and kicked away from the side of the window and started to fly up to the front.

"Ohh! Excuse me, pardon me!" Johnny stumbled through the other passengers trying to see what his vampire buddy was doing.

"Drac, what are you doing? You're gonna get yourself killed!" No longer angry at him, Elisa grew deeply concerned for her beloved vampire and what he was doing.

Dracula grunted in his pain while he struggled to get to the front of the plane. His body felt like it was on fire, but he was a vampire on a mission. He made it to the front, but the plane kept going and the little bat got smashed onto the cockpit windshield.

"What the heck?" said a startled pilot.

"How'd a bat get up this high?" the co-pilot asked. "Folks, I'm gonna turn on the seat belt sigh just a precaution while we…"

Dracula noticed the pilot speaking into a microphone on his headphones. Immediately understanding what it was used for, the little vampire bat enthralled the pilot with his mind control powers.

"…while we hear a special announcement for my dear friends, Elisa and Jonathan," Dracula's voice came through the intercom.

"Dracula?" Johnny and Elisa gasped in surprised union.

"My dear friends," Dracula spoke. "I have made a terrible mistake. I was trying to keep my baby to myself, because I knew I would always protect her. But I realize now children must discover things for themselves. They'll stumble and fall; laugh and cry, but, such is life. The truth is, Jonathan, you and Mavis are meant to be. You zinged! If she must give her trust to someone else, I'm thankful that it is you, Jonathan. Elisa, I am truly sorry. I should have recognized the bond you and Mavis have shared. You were right, I have been selfish. But, you and I are meant to be. We zinged! I'm also thankful to have met you and put my trust in you. I hope the two of you can hear me, and forgive me."

A woman shrieked and so did a few other passengers. Elisa and Johnny snapped to life and turned around to see why. Little bat Dracula appeared in the window again where they stood; a pleading look on his adorable little bat face. Elisa and Johnny crouched down at eye level to the window and smiled at his heartfelt apologetic speech. Johnny gave Dracula a thumbs-up to show his acceptance of his apology. Elisa blew Dracula a kiss to show her acceptance of his apology. The little vampire bat smiled cutely and nodded to show he understood.

And then, Dracula continued to speak through the intercom, "Okay, folks, we're going to make a quick turnaround to, uh, refuel, and then we'll be back on our way."

All of the passengers released angry groans of objection and one of them banged his head on the seat.

"QUIT YOUR WHINING! I'M BURNING UP OUT HERE!" Dracula shouted.

The pilot, still under Dracula's control, turned the plane around to fly back to Transylvania.

A few minutes later, Johnny found himself back at the Transylvanian airport, no doubt a lot of people were greatly unhappy by this, but Elisa and Johnny were suddenly feeling happier than they'd had in days. Ignoring the passengers' complaints while the pilot had no idea why they were back, Elisa and Johnny departed the plane, backpack and all, at a landing gate where Dracula had flown down to meet them and changed back to normal once he found shade to protect him from the sun. He was looking pretty worn out and tired from being in the sun, a few people nearby stared at him curiously.

"Dracula!" Elisa gasped as she threw herself at the slowly healing vampire's body to embrace him, the impact knocking him to the ground.

"Ohh... I'll be fine, my love," he groaned from exhaustion, returning the embrace.

Back in the village, a huge crowd of humans thunderously applauded and cheered when Dracula came in leading Elisa and Johnny through the crowd to reunite with the Drac Pack, whom gave the two humans happy embraces of welcoming them back to Transylvania.

"Elisa, there's something I really need to ask you," Dracula said to her.

He brought her to a more secluded corner of the village and made his ukulele float appear in a violet mist, and began strumming it in a low and happy tune, one similar to one he played to Mavis as a little girl.

 _"My beautiful Elisa"_ Dracula began to sing, while Elisa stared at him in enchantment to listen to his voice, _"Be with me forever, my love for you burns like the day, so with me you will stay, to be my wife"_ She giggled at his song as he continued, _"And you will be my moonlight, and on wings of love we soar"_ Dracula made his magic continue playing the tune in a mist of blue as his ukulele floated from his hold and he got down on one knee, and Elisa gasped softly recognizing his actions, _"We will be so happy, we two, my beautiful wife, you're what I live for, love brings out the best in you."_

As the magic strumming tune finished on the ukulele, Dracula surprised Elisa as he took out a gold ring with a blue gemstone on it and made a red rose appear in his other hand as he held these items out to her.

"Elisa, will you marry me?" he asked softly.

Elisa became so overwhelmed that she shed happy tears and cried, "Yes! Yes, I will!" before falling on her knees to kiss him while they embraced. Dracula shed a tear or two of his own as they slowly stood up and he put the ring on Elisa's left ring finger. Then he gently tucked the tiny rose into her hair on her left side.

There came an unexpected applause from the audience, led by Johnny and the Drac Pack who smiled at them the biggest. Dracula and Elisa didn't know what to do other than smile, and Dracula chuckled in embarrassment. Nicholas and Catarina wanted to object but nobody was on their side. Simon and Helena, however, were the only ones applauding for their friend for getting engaged.

Frank got so choked up in the moment that he cried loudly and blew his nose on Murray's linen as a tissue, much to the mummy's disgust as he exclaimed, "Oh, c'mon!"


	19. Cause You're My Zing

Sunlight poured in through Mavis's open window warming her room, but she avoided it while she sat to the side in a shaded part of her room and continued to cry with a broken heart.

All of a sudden, something crashed into her room and destroyed her vanity mirror and drawer cabinet, leaving behind a thick trail of dark grey smoke that filled her entire room.

Mavis coughed and waved her hand to blow the smoke away, and vaguely saw a familiar silhouette in the smoke as it slowly dissipated. "Dad?" she asked.

"Ohh…" Dracula softly groaned from exhaustion. "I'm fine. Just… just a little sun burned."

Mavis looked at him with concern, while Elisa emerged from the smoke. "Elisa? What are you doing here?" she asked, stunned by her appearance.

"Your father brought me back," Elisa explained, slightly worried the young vampire girl would hate her. "I'm so sorry for not telling you who I was before."

Then Dracula approached his daughter and gently took her hands, the burns on his pale skin and clothes gradually began to heal themselves again. "Honey," he said sadly to her. "I always thought the worst thing ever would be seeing you go, but the worst thing is seeing you unhappy. Mavy, I want you to live your life."

A doubtful Mavis sighed, removing her hands from her father's gentle clasp. "I don't know how I'm supposed to do that." The young vampiress looked away in sadness.

Dracula felt his chest clench as he knew why, but he knew how to comfort her. He smiled kindly as he said, "You know, Mommy already gave you her birthday present. Can I now give you mine?"

He went to his self-made crash site and picked up a large black and pink backpack with the hotel's logo on it, it was very similar to the one Johnny had.

"What do I need this for?" Mavis asked, confused.

With a smile, her father happily said as he turned it around, "Oh, it comes with an accessory."

It was Jonathan, giving her a goofy smile and surprising Mavis. She gaped in slight shock, "You?"

"You," he replied, lovingly.

"Why are you back?" she asked.

Dracula released the hold on the backpack as Johnny approached her. She stared at him, scared and unsure.

Johnny understood why, it was because he rejected her for her dad's sake, but at last he had the chance to confess the feeling is mutual. "Cause you're my zing, Mavis."

"I'm your zing?" Mavis repeated in surprised, but remembered last night. "But… you told me you hate monsters."

"Yeah... well..." Johnny groaned before he confessed, "I was afraid your dad was gonna suck all the blood out of my body if I didn't say that."

"I won't have done that! I… heh, heh." Dracula denied nervously as he looked out from behind Johnny and the pink backpack, but then he confessed in defeat, "No, he's right, I would have done that..."

"DAD!" Mavis groaned accusingly at him, about to get mad at her father for being the cause of her unhappiness once again, while Johnny and Elisa grinned at the vampire about to get berated by his daughter.

"I... I was wrong, Devil Chops," Dracula shrugged, and then took something from his vest pocket; it was the old Hawaii post card and he gave it to Mavis.

"Do you really mean it, Dad?" Mavis asked, hopefully.

"Go make your own paradise." Dracula tenderly brushed some of hair behind her ear and grinned. "I'm going to start a new paradise of my own." He nodded his head at Elisa, who displayed her engagement ring at her soon-to-be stepdaughter.

No one had seen Mavis smile so brightly since she was allowed to out for the first time, only tricked to going to the fake village. "Holy rabies!" she cheered, flinging herself at the human woman and embracing her like never before.

Taken aback by the vampire girl's actions, Elisa slid her arms around her and gave her a tight squeeze. Dracula and Johnny smiled at this heart-warming scene.

Very happy to be reunited with his zing, Johnny stepped toward Mavis. "Can we try that kiss over again?" he asked, as the Count backed up a bit with Elisa by his side.

Mavis giggled, "I think we can."

They slowly leaned in and puckered their lips, but Dracula couldn't keep it in for long and he suddenly roared at them fiercely with red eyes. But then realized what he was doing as both teens stared at him with blank expressions. Elisa smacked him on the back of the head to scold him.

"Sorry! I... I just… I got to get used to that," Dracula apologized sheepishly. "Now go. Do… do your thing."

He and Elisa left the room hastily, leaving Johnny and Mavis alone to share their best kiss.

That night, a new celebration for Mavis's coming of age began, many monster guests had returned and stayed to see the reunion of two unlikely but miraculous zings. Outside beneath a beautiful night sky, Mavis and Johnny kissed each other again with hundreds of fireflies forming 'Happy Birthday Mavis' above them with her friends and her dad's friends surrounding them both. Mavis wore a Hawai'ian shirt with a straw hat, and both she and Johnny and her friends and all of the Drac Pack wore leis.

As for Quasimodo, he had remained immobilized in the wheelbarrow with his finger still stuck up his nose. He muffled in protest as several wolf pups licked at him playfully with wet tongues. This was his punishment for ruining Mavis's party and her relationship with Johnny, and for ruining Dracula's relationship with Elisa. And he would never work as the hotel's head chef ever again.

Everything became a whirlwind of planning as the night became a wedding as well as the conclusion to a birthday. Though the wedding was quickly planned (since Dracula had already got everything ready because he had originally planned to marry Elisa upon her return), just barely enough time was left to bring Nicholas, Catarina, Helena, Simon, and the rest of the humans from the Monster Festival to the ceremony. Elisa still resented her former boss for kicking her out, but she didn't want to show no ill-will toward him after living with him for couple of years and decided to invite him to the wedding. Though they were very nervous about being around so many monsters, just as the monsters looked very nervous to be around humans, Elisa was glad to see her former boss and his wife no less as she rushed over to embrace them, even though they still didn't approve of her marrying a vampire, they were forced to go along with it for her sake.

The wedding ceremony took place outside by the pool, along with 'Good Time' by Owl City played in the background. Dozens of little bats held up sparkling white curtains for the ceremony. Monsters sat on one side of the area for the groom, and humans sat on the other side of the area for the bride. At the altar stood Dracula and a skeleton minister. Frank, Hank, Johnny, Griffin, Murray, Pedro and Wayne (all in tuxedos) stood on the groom's side as Groomsmen and Johnny is the best man, while Eunice, Wanda, Mavis, Wendy and the female mummy (all in gowns) stood on the bride's side as Brides maids and Mavis is the maid of honor, while the room was filled with monster guests including the sour Nicholas, the wary Catarina, and the excited Simon and Helena sat in a front row on the bride's side.

All eyes filled with happy tears when Elisa slowly came down the aisle. Her long hair wavy, her white dress had the off-shoulder sweetheart neckline and white long sleeves, a silver tiara attached to a silken veil and a ruby necklace around her neck. She looked so beautiful in her gown that it took Dracula's breath away. On his part, he wore a more formal version of his gentleman's tuxedo with a pink vest and bow tie and his cape was held on by golden skull styled clasps with a gold chain.

The wedding concluded with a smiling Dracula placing the wedding ring on Elisa's finger, and the skeleton minister said he may kiss the bride right after he proclaimed them husband and wife. The attendees broke out in a thunderous applause for the newly married couple.

At the reception, it began with Elisa tossing her bouquet to a group of gathered single women, which included Mavis, and as though by the further working hand of fate she caught it.

"HOLY RABIES!" Mavis yelled ecstatically, turning to Johnny with a romantic smile at having caught her new stepmother's wedding bouquet, while Johnny smiled bashfully at her.

Not long after everybody sang 'Happy Birthday' to Mavis, she blew out the candles on the top of the cake. This cake was used for both her birthday and her parents' wedding. Dracula and Elisa stood together as they cut the first piece of a vanilla frosted chocolate wedding cake, and handed out the first slice to the birthday girl before passing down each slice to their monster and human friends and family.

It was time for the bride and groom to have their personal dance together. Mavis and Johnny swayed a wacky waltz together. Other couples or best friends like Nicholas and Catarina, Wayne and Wanda, Simon and Helena, Frank and Eunice, Murray and the female mummy, and many others joined them. Griffin was the only single guy who didn't have a dance partner, until he decided to dance with a witch maid. Hank didn't mind dancing with Charlotte and Sophie, while Pedro danced with Wendy. Johnny danced with Elisa for a moment, while Dracula danced with his daughter Mavis. Afterword, Dracula gracefully lead Elisa on the dance floor, leading her to a far wall, which she was unsure about at first. But she trusted her new husband when a blue mist drifted around her gown to help her dance up the wall and even onto the ceiling as though she were a vampire herself. It was like a surreal dream for Elisa, and she lived in the moments she had with Dracula. Tears formed in both of their eyes as Elisa leaned her head against Dracula's chest to listen to his undead beating heart.

The celebration continued up to the finale, the Drac Pack and Mavis's friends gathered together on stage. Wayne and Pedro as two DJs and began playing a dance tune with an electric mix to it to with Hank, Wendy, Frank, Murray, and Griffin danced to. Johnny slid out onto the stage and started to rap.

Jonathan: _I thought I found a love, but she was just a fling,  
And then I met a girl and felt a different thing,  
It's like you're hit in the ring,  
Like you're pulled by a string,  
Can't breathe like you're choking on a chicken wing  
It was a thing called a zing,  
And I wanted to sing,  
And listen to the ballads of the man named Sting,  
Girl looks in your eyes and it's suddenly spring,  
Like when Nala looked at Simba in THE LION KING_

Murray: _Zinging in the air  
And I don't have a care  
I'm winging from the zing that we share_

A little bat flew over the stage and transformed into Mavis as she joined in.

Mavis: _Zinging in the rain  
Now I'm feeling no pain_

Mavis & Murray: _It's a real time for celebrating  
Cause you're my zing_

Mavis and Johnny smiled and looked deep into each other's eyes as a ghost table rose with Dracula proudly standing atop it with his cape cocooning his figure and it flew gracefully towards the stage while he smiled. Another ghost table flew Elisa gracefully up to the stage right behind her new vampire husband.

"Dudes, ready to throw down?" Johnny offered enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" Elisa accepted excitedly.

"No, no," Dracula refused, shyly. "I just came closer, to... to hear you better."

"Aw, c'mon, just give it a try," Johnny encouraged.

"Alright, maybe just a little," Dracula said with a smile and grabbed the microphone from Johnny and began to sing, proving he can rap quite well.

Dracula: _So listen all you zingers  
From here to Beijing  
Cause you'd better crash the box spring  
Get ready to cling  
Cause if love was money  
You'd hear cha-ching_

Mavis and Johnny looked on in shock, then turned to embarrassment and a shrug for Mavis but amazement for Johnny, while Elisa was shocked but broke into an amused and enchanted smile.

Dracula & Johnny: _Next to a zing  
Cupid's arrow, a little bee sting  
It was a zing and zang, and zingidy-dee  
And there was only one lady in the zing for me  
Cause when you're dinged  
By the zing  
You better know a thing  
The bling you gonna sling  
Is a wedding ring_

Dracula then froze everyone on stage and spun to the center, the crowd cheering wildly, so he can amusingly milk the attention on himself. He then unfroze everyone, just as Mavis and Murray sang.

Mavis & Murray: _Zinging in the air_

Dracula froze them again, as he continued singing to get the last verse to himself with an auto tune mix.

Dracula: _Now I don't have a care  
I'm winging from the zing  
That we share_

Dracula leaned down and charmed a nearby witch, the same one who had a crush on him.

Dracula: _Zinging in the rain  
Now I'm feeling no pain_

Dracula then unfroze everyone and Elisa, who had a mixture of jealousy and amusement on her lovely face, roughly elbowed him in the arm knowing he charmed the witch maid and for freezing everyone, and sang the loudest among Mavis and Murray's singing.

Elisa: _It's a real time for celebrating  
Cause you're my zing_

They stared into each other's eyes deeply love struck as she sang to him. Everyone started walking out on the ghost tables, and the song continued in an exciting tempo.

Chorus: _Feel the zing, y'all,  
Ba-bing, y'all,  
Gonna knock out that ring, y'all,  
Ba-bing, y'all,  
Happening, y'all,  
Pay attention to the Undead King, y'all,  
Ho, Ho, Ho! (17xs)_

The ghost tables rose high with their different passengers, the audience dancing to the music and joining in the 'Ho!' The monsters were moving their bodies to the rhythm, mostly the skeleton's bones chattered loudly, having a blast in the crowd as they cheered.

The tables then crisscrossed each other through the air; Dracula and Elisa, Frank and Eunice and Hank, Murray and Pedro, Wayne and Wanda, Griffin, Blobby and Wendy, and last but not least Mavis and Johnny.

Fireworks exploded in the air, and it was magical. They dazzled and sparkled in a variety of colors and some looked like pumpkins, a spider, or even a skull. It wasn't just a celebration for a birthday and wedding, it was also the sign of the dawning of a new age for monsters and humans.

THE END

 **Cast:**

 **Adam Sandler - Count Dracula**

 **Drew Barrymore - Elisa**

 **Livy Stubenrauch - Young Elisa**

 **Selena Gomez - Mavis**

 **Sadie Sandler - Young Mavis/Winnie**

 **Andy Samberg - Johnny**

 **Kevin James - Frankenstein**

 **Fran Drescher - Eunice**

 **Gage Munroe - Hank**

 **Steve Buscemi - Wayne**

 **Molly Shannon - Wanda**

 **CeeLo Green - Murray**

 **Joseph Motiki - Pedro**

 **David Spade - Griffin**

 **Evany Rosen - Wendy**

 **Jon Lovitz - Quasimodo**

 **Josh Dallas - Andrei**

 **Emilie de Ravin - Rosette**

 **Timothy Dalton - Nicholas**

 **Noni Stapleton - Catarina**

 **Jackie Sandler - Martha**

 **Luenell - Shrunken Head**

 **Chris Parnell - Fly**

 **Brian George - Suit of Armor**

 **Cam Clarke - Simon**

 **Rose Abdoo - Helena**

 **Brian Stack - Plane Pilot**

 **Rob Riggle - Skeleton Husband**

 **Paul Brittain - Zombie Plumber**

 **Robert Smigel - Marty/Fake Dracula**

 **Jonny Solomon - Gremlin Man**

 **Jim Wise - Shrunken Head/Hydra**

 **Craig Kellman - Festival Guy/Hydra**

 **Brian McCann - Yeti/Hydra**

 **Tom Kenny - Hydra**

 **James C.J. Williams - Igor Construction Foreman**

 ** _I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster_**

 ** _I'm one of a kind, got everybody in love  
And I don't have to try, I just do what I does  
Don't have to tell me, I already know  
They all want me_**

 ** _Yo, I run this, I smash it  
Like my bass real hard, boom-bastic  
Speed race baby, I'm a lot faster  
Cause trouble, never listen to my master  
New Benz all black, from Malaysia  
Can't drive, but my mama don't care yup  
To the top, I'm a take it to the ceiling  
I'm on the moon but I feel the sun beaming  
I'm so dope like ooh la la  
So so fly like a helicopter  
Sup to the hood and the homies on the block  
Doing it big, ya, you know, what's up_**

 ** _Some come and try to say I'm a problem  
So crazy, gotta put 'em in an asylum  
Some come and try to say I'm a problem  
Ha, solve it_**

 ** _I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster  
I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster_**

 ** _I'm one of a kind, got everybody in love  
And I don't have to try, I just do what I does  
Don't have to tell me, I already know  
They all want me_**

 ** _Yo, yo, yo  
I ran this, I rock this  
I can see the future, no optics  
More androids, robotics_**

 ** _Beam up hot chicks like I'm Spock  
They be chilling in my cockpit, my spaceship got exotic  
One be tripping, come 'n' whip, hypnotic, they be talking 'bout ooh la la  
Let's go far, way past them stars  
We don't give a - let's go to Mars_**

 ** _Ay, yo  
I'm just trying to get it popping  
I wanna be the first dude to love a Martian  
She love a man, cut the swag that I'm dropping  
I kill the game till it's chilling in the coffin  
When I start it, ain't no stopping_**

 ** _Yo, yo  
Yo, yo  
Yo, yo  
Yo, yo  
(Don't be acting like)  
Don't be actin' like  
Like you didn't know  
Like you didn't know  
Like you didn't know  
Like you didn't know_**

 ** _I'm one of a kind, got everybody in love  
And I don't have to try, I just do what I does  
Don't have to tell me, I already know  
They all want me_**

 ** _I'm one of a kind, got everybody in love  
And I don't have to try, I just do what I does  
Don't have to tell me, I already know  
They all want me_**

 ** _I'm a monster, I'm a m-monster_**

* * *

 **Fun Facts & Trivia:**

On /2012/12/hotel-transylvania-2012-visual_18. the visual development environment art was used for Chapter 2 Present Day, Chapter 9 Activities, Laundry & Bonding, and Chapter 15 Paint of the Past p2, mostly the tavern, the village and town square, the ruins of Mavis's hideout, the hotel's laundry room, the Carpathian village in the mountains, the spa where Mavis and Eunice hung out. Find more by clicking older post or newer post if you want to see them yourselves. The town shops from the-art-of-hotel-transylvania-by-noelle-triaureau. And more environment art I got inspired came from /search/label/Hotel, mostly the usual village streets of Transylvania or the Carpathian village in the mountains. I could use the abandoned factory scene or others in the New Places New Beginnings story.

Carpathian Mountains and the paprika chicken was used in Bram Stoker's Dracula novel and movie. Obviously, Johnny's full name Jonathan was named after the main character from the Dracula story.

The older man, I named Nicholas, whom Johnny talked to about a spooky forest was actually called Van Helsing in the Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania book. There was a character named Simon Van Helsing in the original story, grandson of the older couple Johnny met in the tavern and the love interest of Mavis before.

Elisa's surname Belmont was used in Castlevania, a Dracula video game series. Not only does the name bel means 'beautiful' and mont means 'mountain' the Belmont clan is a family of monster hunters.


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